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THE GOLDEN BOUGH
A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION
THIRD EDITION
PART V
SPIRITS OF THE CORN
AND OF THE WILD
VOL. I
^m^
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON . BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO
DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
SPIRITS OF THE CORN
AND OF THE WILD
BY
J. G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
I 9 I 2
COPYRIGHT
6L
f1
V.7
PREFACE
In the last part of this work we examined the figure of
the Dying and Reviving God as it appears in the Oriental
religions of classical antiquity. With the present instalment
of TJie Golden Bough we pursue the same theme in other
religions and among other races. Passing from the East to
Europe we begin with the religion of ancient Greece, which
embodies the now familiar conception in two typical examples,
the vine-god Dionysus and the corn-goddess Persephone,
with her mother and duplicate Demeter. Both of these
Greek divinities are personifications of cultivated plants, and
a consideration of them naturally leads us on to investigate
similar personifications elsewhere. Now of all the plants
which men have artificially reared for the sake of food the
cereals are on the whole the most important ; therefore it is
natural that the religion of primitive agricultural communities
should be deeply coloured by the principal occupation of
their lives, the care of the corn. Hence the frequency with
which the figures of the Corn -mother and Corn -maiden,
answering to the Demeter and Persephone of ancient Greece,
meet us in other parts of the world, and not least of all on
the harvest-fields of modern Europe. But edible roots as
well as cereals have been cultivated by many races, especially
in the tropical regions, as a subsidiary or even as a principal
means of subsistence ; and accordingly they too enter largely
into the religious ideas of the peoples who live by them.
Yet in the case of the roots, such as yams, taro, and potatoes,
V
vi PREFACE
the conception of the Dying and Reviving God appears to
figure less prominently than in the case of the cereals, per-
haps for the simple reason that while the growth and decay
of the one sort of fruit go on above ground for all to see, the
similar processes of the other are hidden under ground and
therefore strike the popular imagination less forcibly.
Having surveyed the variations of our main theme among
the agricultural races of mankind, we prosecute the enquiry
among savages who remain naore or less completely in the
hunting, fishing, and pastoral stages of society. The same
motive which leads the primitive husbandman to adore the
corn or the roots, induces the primitive hunter, fowler, fisher,
or herdsman to adore the beasts, birds, or fishes which furnish
him with the means of subsistence. To him the conception
of the death of these worshipful beings is naturally presented
with singular force and distinctness ; since it is no figurative
or allegorical death, no poetical embroidery thrown over the
skeleton, but the real death, the naked skeleton, that con-
stantly thrusts itself importunately on his attention. And
strange as it may seem to us civilised men, the notion of
the immortality and even of the resurrection of the lower
animals appears to be almost as familiar to the savage and
to be accepted by him with nearly as unwavering a faith as
the obvious fact of their death and destruction. For the most
part he assumes as a matter of course that the souls of dead
animals survive their decease ; hence much of the thought
of the savage hunter is devoted to the problem of how he can
best appease the naturally incensed ghosts of his victims so
as to prevent them from doing him a mischief This refusal
of the savage to recognise in death a final cessation of the
vital process, this unquestioning faith in the unbroken con-
tinuity of all life, is a fact that has not yet received the
attention which it seems to merit from enquirers into
the constitution of the human mind as well as into the
history of religion. In the following pages I have collected
PREFACE vii
examples of this curious faith ; I must leave it to others to
appraise them.
Thus on the whole we are concerned in these volumes
with the reverence or worship paid by men to the natural
resources from which they draw their nutriment, both vege-
table and animal. That they should invest these resources
with an atmosphere of wonder and awe, often indeed with a
halo of divinity, is no matter for surprise. The circle of
human knowledge, illuminated by the pale cold light of
reason, is so infinitesimally small, the dark regions of human
ignorance which lie beyond that luminous ring are so im-
measurably vast, that imagination is fain to step up to the
border line and send the warm, richly coloured beams of her
fairy lantern streaming out into the darkness ; and so,
peering into the gloom, she is apt to mistake the shadowy
reflections of her own figure for real beings moving in
the abyss. In short, few men are sensible of the sharp
line that divides the known from the unknown ; to most
men it is a hazy borderland where perception and concep-
tion melt indissolubly into one. Hence to the savage the
ghosts of dead animals and men, with which his imagination
peoples the void, are hardly less real than the solid shapes
which the living animals and men present to his senses ;
and his thoughts and activities are nearly as much absorbed
by the one as by the other. Of him it may be said with
perhaps even greater truth than of his civilised brother,
" What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ! "
But having said so much in this book of the misty glory
which the human imagination sheds round the hard material
realities of the food supply, I am unwilling to leave my
readers under the impression, natural but erroneous, that
man has created most of his gods out of his belly. That is
not so, at least that is not my reading of the history of
religion. Among the visible, tangible, perceptible elements
by which he is surrounded — and it is only of these that I
viii PREFACE
presume to speak — there are others than the merely nutri-
tious which have exerted a powerful influence in touching
his imagination and stimulating his energies, and so have
contributed to build up the complex fabric of religion. To
the preservation of the species the reproductive faculties
are no less essential than the nutritive ; and with them we
enter on a very different sphere of thought and feeling, to
wit, the relation of the sexes to each other, with all the
depths of tenderness and all the intricate problems which
that mysterious relation involves. The study of the various
forms, some gross and palpable, some subtle and elusive, in
which the sexual instinct has moulded the religious con-
sciousness of our race, is one of the most interesting, as it is
one of the most difficult and delicate tasks, which await the
future historian of religion.
But the influence which the sexes exert on each other,
intimate and profound as it has been and must always be, is
far indeed from exhausting the forces of attraction by which
mankind are bound together in society. The need of mutual
protection, the economic advantages of co-operation, the
contagion of example, the communication of knowledge, the
great ideas that radiate from great minds, like shafts of light
from high towers, — these and many other things combine to
draw men into communities, to drill them into regiments,
and to set them marching on the road of progress with a
concentrated force to which the loose skirmishers of mere
anarchy and individualism can never hope to oppose a per-
manent resistance. Hence when we consider how intimately
humanity depends on society for many of the boons which
it prizes most highly, we shall probably admit that of all
the forces open to our observation which have shaped
human destiny the influence of man on man is by far the
greatest. If that is so, it seems to follow that among the
beings, real or imaginary, which the religious imagination
has clothed with the attributes of divinity, human spirits are
PREFACE ix
likely to play a more important part than the spirits of
plants, animals, or inanimate objects, I believe that a
careful examination of the evidence, which has still to be
undertaken, will confirm this conclusion ; and that if we
could strictly interrogate the phantoms which the human
mind has conjured up out of the depths of its bottomless
ignorance and enshrined as deities in the dim light of
temples, we should find that the majority of them have
been nothing but the ghosts of dead men. However, to
say this is necessarily to anticipate the result of future
research ; and if in saying it I have ventured to make a
prediction, which like all predictions is liable to be falsified
by the event, I have done so only from a fear lest, without
some such warning, the numerous facts recorded in these
volumes might lend themselves to an exaggerated estimate
of their own importance and hence to a misinterpretation
and distortion of history.
J. G. FRAZER.
Cambridge, A,th May 19 12.
CONTENTS
Preface Pp. v-ix
Chapter I. — Dionysus . . . .Pp. 1-34
Dying and Reviving gods of ancient Greece, pp. i sq. ; the vine-god Dionysus a
Thiacian deity, 2 sq. ; Dionysus a god of trees, especially fruit-trees, 3
sq. ; Dionysus a god of agriculture, 5 ; the winnowing-fan as his emblem,
5 ; use of the winnowing-fan to cradle infants, 5-1 1 ; use of the wiimow-
ing-fan in the rites of Dionysus, 11 sq. ; death and resurrection of
Dionysus in myth and ritual, 12- 16; Dionysus as a bull, 16 sq. ;
Dionysus as a goat, 17 sq. ; custom of rending and devouring animals
«» and men as a religious rite in Greece, America, and Morocco, 18-22 ;
later misinterpretations of such customs, 22 sq. ; human sacrifices in the
worship of Dionysus, 23 sq. ; legends of Pentheus and Lycurgus, 24 sq. ;
survival of Dionysiac rites among the modern Thracian peasantry, 25-29 ;
analogy of these modern ceremonies to the rites of Dionysus, especially
to the festival of the Anthesteria, 29-33 ; legends of human sacrifices in
the worship of Dionysus perhaps based on misinterpretations of ritual,
33 •^?-
Chapter II. — Demeter and Persephone Pp. 35-91
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 35-37 ; its aim to explain the foundation of the
Eleusinian mysteries by Demeter, 37 sq. ; revelation of the reaped ear
of corn at the mysteries, 38 sq. ; Demeter and Persephone personifica-
tions of the corn, 39 sq. ; Demeter in the Homeric hymn not the Earth-
goddess, 40 sq. ; the Yellow Demeter of the ripe corn at the threshing-
floor, 41 sq. ; the Green Demeter of the green corn, 42 ; the cereals
called Demeter's fruits, 42 sq. ; tradition of human life before Demeter's
time, 43 ; corn and poppies as symbols of Demeter, 43 sq. ; Persephone
portrayed as young corn sprouting from the ground, 44 ; Demeter
invoked by Greek farmers before the autumnal sowing, 45 sq. ; festival of
mourning for the descent of Persephone at the autumnal sowing, 46 ;
xi
CONTENTS
thank-offerings of ripe grain presented to Demeter by Greek farmers after
the harvest, 46-48 ; date of the offerings, 47 sq. ; the first-fruits offered
to Demeter in autumn, because that is the season of ploughing and
sowing, 48 sq. ; the festival of the Proerosia ("Before the Ploughing")
held at Eleusis in honour of Demeter, 50-53 ; public offerings of the
first-fruits of the barley and wheat to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis,
53-56 ; the Athenians generally believed to have spread the knowledge of
Demeter's gift of the corn among mankind, 56-58 ; the Sicilians associ-
ated Demeter with the seed-corn and Persephone with the ripe ears,
58 sq, ; difficulty of distinguishing between the two corn -goddesses, 59 ;
the time of year when the first-fruits were offered to Demeter and Per-
sephone at Eleusis unknown, 59 sq. ; Festival of the Threshing-floor
(Haloa) at Eleusis, 60-63 5 the Green Festival and the Festival of the
Cornstalks at Eleusis, 63 ; epithets of Demeter referring to the corn, 63
sq. ; ancient and modern belief that the corn-crops depend on possession
of an image of Demeter, 64 sq. ; sacred marriage of Zeus and Demeter
at Eleusis, 65-70 ; the Eleusinian games distinct from the Eleusinian
mysteries, 70 ; the Eleusinian games sacred to Demeter and Persephone,
71 ; Triptolemus the mythical hero of the corn, 72 sq. ; prizes of barley
given to victors in the Eleusinian games, 73 sq. ; the Ancestral Contest
in the games perhaps a competition between reapers, 74 sq. ; games at
harvest festivals in modern Europe, 75-77 ; date of the Eleusinian games
uncertain, 77 ; quadriennial and biennial period of the games, 77 sq. ; the
mysteries probably older than the games, 78 sq. ; the quadriennial period
of many of the great games of Greece based on the old octennial cycle,
79-82 ; the motive for instituting the eight years' cycle was religious,
82-84 ; the quadriennial and biennial periods of the Greek games prob^
ably obtained by successive bisections of the octennial cycle, 84-87 ;
application of these conclusions to the Eleusinian games, 87 sq. ; Varro
on the rites of Eleusis, 88 ; the resemblance between the artistic types of
Demeter and Persephone is in favour of their substantial identity as
goddesses of the corn, 88-90 ; as goddesses of the corn Demeter and
Persephone came to be associated with the ideas of death and resurrection,
90 sq.
Chapter III. — Magical Significance of
i Games in Primitive Agriculture . Pp. 92-112
Games played as magical ceremonies to promote the growth of the crops, 92 ;
\ the Kayans of Central Borneo, a primitive agricultural people, whose
religion is coloured by their agriculture, 92 sq. ; their ceremonies and
taboos at sowing, 93 sq. ; their games and masquerades at sowing, 94-96 ;
the Kayan New Year festival, 96 sq. ; Dr. Nieuwenhuis on the serious
religious significance of the Kayan games, 97-99 ; the Kai, an agricul-
tural people of German New Guinea, 99 sq. ; superstitious practices
observed by the Kai for the good of the crops, 100 sq. ; games played
and stories told by the Kai in order to promote the growth of the tare
CONTENTS xiii
and yams, 101-104; tales told by the Yabim as spells to produce
abundant crops, 104 sq. ; narrative spells and imperative spells, 105 sq. ;
use of the bull-roarer to quicken the fruits of the earth, 106 sq. ; swinging
as an agricultural charm, 107 ; analogy of the Kayans to the early Greeks,
107 sq. ; the Sacred Ploughing at Eleusis, 108 sq. ; the connexion of the
Eleusinian games with agriculture confirmed by modern analogies, iioj^.;
the sacred drama of the Eleusinian mysteries compared to the masked
dances of agricultural savages, 1 1 1 sq.
Chapter IV. — Woman's Part in Primitive
Agriculture . . . . Pp. 113-130
personification of the corn as feminine sometimes explained by woman's part
in primitive agriculture, 113 ; in many savage tribes women hoe and sow
the ground, 113; agricultural work done by women in Africa, 1 13-120,
in South America, 120-122, in India, New Guinea, and New Britain,
122 sq. ; division of agricultural work between men and women in the
Indian Archipelago, 124 ; among savages in the hunting stage women
collect the edible seeds and roots, as among the Californian Indians and
the aborigines of Australia, 124-128; agriculture perhaps originated in
the digging for wild fruits, 128 sq. ; the discovery of agriculture probably
due to women, 129 ; women as agricultural labourers among the Aryans
of Europe, 129 ; Greek conception of the Corn Goddess probably due to
a simple personification of the corn, 1 29 sq.
Chapter V. — The Corn-mother and the
Corn-maiden in Northern Europe Pp. 1 31-170
Etymology of Demeter's name, 131 ; barley her original gi'ain, 131 sq. ; the
Corn-mother among the Germans and Slavs, 133 sq. ; the Corn-mother
in the last sheaf, 1 33-1 35 ; the Harvest-mother, the Great Mother or the
Grandmother in the last sheaf, 135 sq. ; the Old Woman or the Old Man
in the last sheaf, 136-138 ; identification of the harvester with the corn-
spirit, 138 sq. ; the last sheaf made unusually large and heavy, 139 sq. ;
the Carline and the Maiden in Scotland, 140; the Old Wife {Cailleach')
at harvest in the Highlands of Scotland, 140-142 ; the Hag (wrach) in
Pembrokeshire, 142-144 ; the Carley at harvest in Antrim, 144; the Old
Woman [Babd) at harvest among the Slavs and Lithuanians, 144 sq. ;
the Corn-queen and Harvest-queen in Russia, Bulgaria, Austria, and
England, 146 sq. ; the corn-spirit as the Old Woman or Old Man at
threshing, 147-150; the corn-spirit as a child at harvest, 150 sq. ; the
last corn cut called the mell, the kirn, or the churn in various parts of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, 151-155 ; the last corn cut called the
Maiden in the Highlands of Scotland, 155-158; the cutting of the last
corn, called the clyack sheaf, in Aberdeenshire, 158-162 ; the corn-spirit
as a bride or as bride and bridegroom, 162-164; the corn-spirit in the
CONTENTS
double form of the Old Wife and the Maiden simultaneously at harvest in
the Highlands of Scotland, 164-167 ; analogy of the harvest customs to
the spring customs of Europe, id"] sq. ; the spring and harvest customs
of Europe are parts of a primitive heathen ritual, 168 ; marks of a primi-
tive ritual which are to be found in these customs, 169 s//.
Chapter VI. — The Corn-mother in many
Lands Pp. 17 1-2 13
§1. T/ie Corn-mother in America, pp. 171-177. — The Maize-mother, the
Quinoa-niother, the Coca-mother, and the Potato-mother among the
/Peruvian Indians, 171-174; the Maize-goddess and the Maize-god of
/the Mexicans, 174-177; the Corn-mother among the North American
•s^ Indians, 177.
§ 2. The Mother-cotton in the Ptmjaiib, p. 178.
§ 3. The Barley Bride among the Berbers, pp. 178-180.
§ 4. The Rice-mother in the East Indies, pp. 180-204. — The Indonesian
ritual of the rice based on a belief that the rice is animated by a
soul, 180-183 ; rice treated by the Indonesians as if it were a
woman, 183 sq. ; the Kayans of Borneo, their treatment of the soul
of the rice, 184-186 ; masquerade performed by the Kayans before
sowing, 186 sq. ; comparison of the Kayan masquerade with the Eleu-
sinian drama, 187 sq. ; securing the soul of the rice among the Dyaks of
Northern Borneo, 188 sq. ; recalling the soul of the rice in Burma,
189-191 ; the Rice-mother among the Minangkabauers of Sumatra, 191
sq. ; the Rice-mother among the Tomori of Celebes, 193 ; special words
used at reaping among the Tomori, 193 ; riddles and stories in connexion
with the rice, 194 ; the Rice-mother among the Toradjas of Celebes, 194
sq. ; the rice personified as a young woman among the Bataks of Sumatra,
196 ; the King of the Rice in Mandeling, 197 ; the Rice-mother and the
Rice-child at harvest in the Malay Peninsula, 197-199; the Rice-bride
and the Rice-bridegroom at harvest in Java, 199-201 ; the rice-spirit as
husband and wife in Bali and Lombok, 201-203 '■> ^^^ Father and Mother
of the Rice among the Szis of Burma, 203 sq.
§ 5. The Spirit of the Corn embodied in Human Beings, pp. 204-207. — Old
women as representatives of the Corn-goddess among the Mandans and
Minnitarees, 204-206 ; Miami myth of the corn-spirit in the form of an
old man, 206 sq.
§ 6'. The Double Persotiification of the Corn as Mother and Daughter, pp.
207-213. — Analogy of Demeter and Persephone to the Corn-mother, the
^ Harvest-maiden, and similar figures in the harvest customs of modern
\i European peasantry, 207-209; Demeter perhaps the ripe crop and Per-
sephone the seed-corn, 209 sq. ; or the Greek mythical conception of the
CONTENTS XV
corn may have been duplicated when the original conception became
purely anthropomorphic, 211-213.
Chapter VII. — Lityerses . . Pp. 214-269
§ I. Songs of the Corn Reapers, pp. 214-216. — -Popular harvest and vintage
customs in ancient Egypt, Syria, and Phrygia, 214 sq. ; Maneros, a
plaintive song of Egyptian reapers, 2\^ sq. ; Linus or Ailinus, a plaintive
song of Phoenician vintagers, 216 ; Bormus, a plaintive song of Marian-
dynian reapers in Bithynia, 216.
§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit, pp. 216-236. — The legend of Lityerses, a reflection
of a Phrygian custom of killing strangers at harvest as embodiments of
the corn-spirit, 2 1 6-2 1 8 ; contests among harvesters in order not to be
last at their work, 218-220 ; custom of wrapping up in corn-stalks the
last reaper, binder, or thresher, 220-222 ; the corn-spirit, driven out of
the last corn, lives in the barn through the winter, 222 ; similar ideas as
to the last corn in India, 222 sq. ; the corn-spirit supposed to be killed at
reaping or threshing, 223-225 ; the corn-spirit represented by a stranger
or visitor to the harvest-field, 225-227 ; ceremonies of the Tarahumare
Indians at hoeing, ploughing, and harvest, 227-229 ; pretence made by
reapers of killing some one with their scythes, 229 sq. ; pretence made by
threshers of choking some one with their flails, 230 ; custom observed at
the madder-harvest in Zealand, 23 1 ; the spirit of the corn conceived
as poor and robbed by the reapers, 231 sq. ; some of the corn left on the
harvest-field for the corn-spirit, 232-234 ; little fields or gardens cultivated
for spirits or gods, 234 ; hence perhaps the dedication of sacred lands and
first-fruits to gods and spirits, 234 sq. ; passing strangers treated as the
spirit of the madder-root, 235 sq. ; the killing of the personal representa-
tive of the corn-spirit, 236.
HiDiian Sacrifices for the Crops, pp. 236-251. — Human sacrifices for the
crops in South and Central America, 236-238 ; human sacrifices for the
crops among the Pawnees, 238 sq. ; human sacrifices for the crops in
frica, 239 sq. ; human sacrifices for the crops in the Philippines, 240
hq. ; human sacrifices for the crops among the Wild Wa of Burma,
241-243 ; human sacrifices for the crops among the Shans of Indo-China
and the Nagas and other tribes of India, 243-245 ; human sacrifices for
the crops among the Khonds, 245-249 ; in these Khond sacrifices the
victims appear to have been regarded as divine, 249-251 ; traces of the
identification of the human victim with the god in other sacrifices, 251.
§ 4. The Corn-spirit slai7i in his Hwnan Representatives, pp. 251-269. — Analogy
of these barbarous rites to the harvest customs of Europe, 251 sq. ;
human representative of the corn-spirit slain on the harvest-field, 252 sq. ;
the victim who represented the corn-spirit may have been a passing
stranger or the reaper, binder, or thresher of the last corn, 253 sq. ;
perhaps the victim annually sacrificed in the character of the corn-spirit
may have been the king himself, 254 sq. ; relation of Lityerses to Attis,
CONTENTS
255 sq. ; human representatives of both annually slain, 256 sq. ; similarity
of the Bithynian Bormus to the Phrygian Attis, 257 ; the Phoenician
Linus identified with Adonis, who may have been annually represented
by a human victim, 258 sq. ; the corn-spirit in Egypt (Osiris) annually
represented by a human victim, 259-261 ; assimilation of human victims
to the corn which they represent, 261 sq. ; remains of victims scattered
over the fields to fertilise them, 262 sq. ; the black and green Osiris like
the black and green Demeter, 263 ; the key to the mysteries of Osiris
furnished by the lamentations of the reapers for the annual death of the
corn-spirit, 263 sq. ; "crying the Neck" at harvest in Devonshire, 264-
267; cutting "the Neck" in Pembrokeshire and Shropshire, 267 sq. ;
why the last corn is called "the Neck," 268; cries of the reapers in
Germany, 269.
Chapter VIII. — The Corn -spirit as an
Animal Pp. 270-305
§ I. Animal Ejnbodiments of the Corn-spirit, pp. 270 sq. — The corn-spirit in
the form of an animal supposed to be present in the last corn cut or
'threshed, and to be caught or killed by the reaper or thresher, 270 sq.
I
/
§ 2. The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog, pp. 271-275. — The corn-spirit as a
wolf or a dog supposed to run through the corn, 271 sq. ; the corn-spirit
as a dog at reaping and threshing, 272 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a wolf at
reaping, 273 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a wolf driven out or killed at thresh-
ing, 274 sq. ; the corn-wolf at harvest in France, 275 ; the corn-wolf
killed on the harvest-field, 275 ; the corn-wolf at midwinter, 275.
§ 3. The Corn-spirit as a Cock, pp. 276-278. — The corn-spirit as a cock sitting
in the corn, 276 ; the corn-spirit as a cock at harvest, 276 sq. ; the corn-
spirit killed in the form of a live cock, 277 sq.
§ 4. The Corn-spirit as a Hare, pp. 279 sq. — The corn-spirit as a hare at reap-
ing, 279 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a hare killed in the last corn cut, 280.
§ 5. The Corn-spirit as a Cat, pp. 280 sq. — The corn-spirit as a cat sitting in
the corn, 280 ; the corn-spirit as a cat at reaping and threshing, 280 sq.'y
the corn-spirit as a cat killed at reaping and threshing, 281.
§ 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat, pp. 281-288. — The corn-spirit in the form of a
goat running through the corn or sitting in it, 281 sq. ; the corn-goat at
reaping and binding the corn, 282 sq. ; the corn-spirit as the Cripple
Goat in Skye, 283 sq. ; the corn-spirit killed as a goat on the harvest-
field, 285 sq. ; the corn-goat supposed to lurk among the corn in the barn
till he is expelled by the flail at threshing, 286 ; the corn-goat passed on
to a neighbour who has not finished his threshing, 286 sq. ; the corn-goat
killed at threshing, 287 ; old Prussian custom of killing a goat at sowing^
288.
CONTENTS xvii
§ 7. The Corfi-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox, pp. 288-292. — The corn-spirit in
the form of a bull running through the corn or lying in it, 288 ; the corn-
spirit as a bull, ox, or cow at harvest, 288-290 ; the corn-spirit in the
form of a bull or ox killed at the close of the reaping, 290 ; the corn-
spirit as a bull or cow at threshing, 290 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a bull
supposed to be killed at threshing, 291 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a calf at
harvest or in spring, 292.
§ 8. The Corn-spirit as a Horse or Mare, pp. 292-294. — The corn-spirit as a
horse running through the corn, 292 ; "crying the Mare" in Hertford-
shire and Shropshire, 292-294 ; the corn-spirit as a horse in France, 294.
§ 9. The Corn-spirit as a Bird, pp. 295 sq. — The corn-spirit as a quail, 295 ;
the rice-spirit as a blue bird, 295 sq. ; the rice-spirit as a quail, 296.
§ 10. The Corn-spirit as a Fox, pp. 296 sq. — The corn-spirit in the form of a
fox running through the corn or sitting in it, 296 ; the corn-spirit as a
fox at reaping the last corn, 296 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a fox at threshing,
297 ; the Japanese rice-god associated with the fox, 297.
§ 1 1. The Corn-spirit as a Pig, pp. 298-303. — The corn-spirit as a boar rushing
through the corn, 298 ; the corn-spirit as a boar or sow at reaping, 298 ;
the corn-spirit as a sow at threshing, 298 sq. ; the corn-spirit as a pig
at sowing, 300 ; the corn-spirit embodied in the Yule or Christmas Boar
of Scandinavia and Esthonia, 300-303.
§ 12. On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit, pp. 303-305. — Sacra-
mental character of the harvest-supper, 303 ; parallelism between the
conceptions of the corn-spirit in human and animal forms, 303 sq. ;
suggested reason for the many animal forms supposed to be assumed by
the corn-spirit, 304 sq.
Note. — The Pleiades in Primitive Calendars Pp. 307-319
Importance of the Pleiades in primitive calendars, 307 ; attention paid to the
Pleiades by the Australian aborigines, 307 sq., by the Indians of Paraguay
_ ai(d Brazil, 308-310, by the Indians of Peru and Mexico, 310 sq., by the
\/North American Indians, 311 sq., by the Polynesians, 312 sq., by the
Melanesians, 313, by the natives of New Guinea and the Indian Archi-
pelago, 313-315, by the natives of Africa, 315-317, by the Greeks and
Romans, 318 ; the association of the Pleiades with agriculture apparently
based on the coincidence of their rising or setting with the commencement
of the rainy season, 318 sq.
CHAPTER I
DIONYSUS
In the preceding part of this work we saw that in anti- Death and
quity the civilised nations of western Asia and Egypt ^^^"'■'"^'="
pictured to themselves the changes of the seasons, and Oriental
particularly the annual growth and decay of vegetation, ve^gt^tion
as episodes in the life of gods, whose mournful death-
and happy resurrection they celebrated with dramatic
rites of alternate lamentation and rejoicing. But if the
celebration was in form dramatic, it was in substance
magical ; that is to say, it was intended, on the principles
of sympathetic magic, to ensure the vernal regeneration of
plants and the multiplication of animals, which had seemed
to be menaced by the inroads of winter. In the ancient
world, however, such ideas and such rites were by no means
confined to the Oriental peoples of Babylon and Syria,
of Phrygia and Egypt ; they were not a product peculiar to
' the religious mysticism of the dreamy East, but were shared
by the races of livelier fancy and more mercurial tempera-
ment who inhabited the shores and islands of the Aegean.
We need not, with some enquirers in ancient and modern
times, suppose that these Western peoples borrowed from
the older civilisation of the Orient the conception of the
Dying and Reviving God, together with the solemn ritual. The Dying
in which that conception was dramatically set forth before -^^^ g^^ ^f
the eyes of the worshippers. More probably the resemblance vegetation
, . , , , . , . , , ,. . c ^^ ancient
which may be traced m this respect between the religions oi Greece.
the East and the West is no more than what we commonly,
though incorrectly, call a fortuitous coincidence, the effect of
PT. V. VOL. I S B
Dionysus,
the god of
the vine,
originally
a Thracian
deity.
2 DIONYSUS CHAP.
similar causes acting alike on the similar constitution of the
human mind in different countries and under different skies.
The Greek had no need to journey into far countries to learn
the vicissitudes of the seasons, to mark the fleeting beauty
of the damask rose, the transient glory of the golden corn, i
the passing splendour of the purple grapes. Year by year I
in his own beautiful land he beheld, with natural regret,
the bright pomp of summer fading into the gloom and
stagnation of winter, and year by year he hailed with natural
delight the outburst of fresh life in spring. Accustomed
to personify the forces of nature, to tinge her cold abstrac-
tions with the warm hues of imagination, to clothe her
naked realities with the gorgeous drapery of a mythic fancy,
he fashioned for himself a train of gods and goddesses, of
spirits and elves, out of the shifting panorama of the seasons,
and followed the annual fluctuations of their fortunes with
alternate emotions of cheerfulness and dejection, of gladness
and sorrow, which found their natural expression in alternate
rites of rejoicing and lamentation, of revelry and mourning.
A consideration of some of the Greek divinities who thus
died and rose again from the dead may furnish us with a
series of companion pictures to set side by side with
the sad figures of Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. We begin with
Dionysus.
The god Dionysus or Bacchus is best known to us as a
personification of the vine and of the exhilaration produced
by the juice of the grape.^ His ecstatic worship, characterised
by wild dances, thrilling music, and tipsy excess, appears to
^ On Dionysus in general, see L.
Preller, Griechische Mythologie^^ i.
659 sqq. ; Fr. Lenormant, s.v.
" Bacchus," in Daremberg and Saglio's
Dictioimaire des AntiquitSs Grecqites
et Romaines, i. 591 ^ll- % Voigt and
Thraemer, s.v. " Dionysus," in W. H.
Roscher's Lexikon der griech. u. rom.
Mythologie, i. 1029 sqq. ; E. Rohde,
Psyche"^ (Tubingen and Leipsic, 1903),
ii. I sqq. ; Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolego-
mena to the Study of Greek Religion,
Second Edition (Cambridge, 1908),
pp. 363^^(7.; Kern, s.v. "Dionysus,"
in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encydopddie
der classischen Alfertumswissenscha/t,
V. 1010 sqq.; M. P. Nilsson, Griechische
Feste von religidser Bedeutung (Leipsic,
1906), pp. 25S sqq. ; L. R. Farnell,
The Cults of the Greek States, v.
(Oxford, 1909) pp. 85 sqq. The
epithet Bromios bestowed on Diony-
sus, and his identification with
the Thracian and Phrygian deity
Sabazius, have been adduced as evi-
dence that Dionysus was a god of beer
or of other cereal intoxicants before
he became a god of wine. See W.
Headlam, in Classical Review, xv,
(1901) p. 23; Miss J. E. Harrison,
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
Religion, pp. 414-426.
I DIONYSUS 3
have originated among the rude tribes of Thrace, who were
notoriously addicted to drunkenness.^ Its mystic doctrines
and extravagant rites were essentially foreign to the clear
intelligence and sober temperament of the Greek race. Yet
appealing as it did to that love of mystery and that prone-
ness to revert to savagery which seem to be innate in most
men, the religion spread like wildfire through Greece until
the god whom Homer hardly deigned to notice had become
the most popular figure of the pantheon. The resemblance
which his story and his ceremonies present to those of
Osiris have led some enquirers both in ancient and modern
times to hold that Dionysus was merely a disguised Osiris,
imported directly from Egypt into Greece.^ But the great
preponderance of evidence points to his Thracian origin,
and the similarity of the two worships is sufficiently
explained by the similarity of the ideas and customs on
which they were founded.
While the vine with its clusters was the most character- Dionysus
istic manifestation of Dionysus, he was also a god of trees * ^"'^ °'
•' ' ° trees, es-
in general. Thus we are told that almost all the Greeks pedaiiy of
sacrificed to "Dionysus of the tree." ^ In Boeotia one of ^™''"*'^^'-
his titles was " Dionysus in the tree." * His image was
often merely an upright post, without arms, but draped in
a mantle, with a bearded mask to represent the head, and
with leafy boughs projecting from the head or body to shew
the nature of the deity.^ On a vase his rude eff[gy is
depicted appearing out of a low tree or bush.*^ At Magnesia
on the Maeander an image of Dionysus is said to have
been found in a plane-tree, which had been broken by the
^ Plato, Laws, i. p. 637 E ; Thee- PAcad^mie des Inscriptions et Belles-
pompus, cited by Athenaeus, x. 60, lettres, xxxvii.).
p. 442 E F ; Suidas, s.v. Ka.ra.<jKeM^eiv ; 3 piutarch, Quaest. Conviv. v. 3 :
compare Xenophon, Anabasis, vii. 3. Aioj-wy 5^ Sevdpirri iravTes, u)s ^ttos
3.'.. For the evidence of the Thracian d-welv, "EXXi^ves dvovaiv.
origin of Dionysus, see the writers 4 Hesychius, 5.t/. ■'E.'5e:'5pos.
cited in the preceding note, especially
Dr. L. R. Farnell, op. cit. v. 85 s^^. ^ See the pictures of his images.
Compare W. Ridgeway, T/ie Origin drawn from ancient vases, in C.
0/ Tragedy (Cambridge, 19 10), pp. Botticher's Baumkiiltus der Hellenen
\osqq^ ^ / ^f (Berlin, 1856), plates 42, 43. 43 A,
2 Herodotus, ii. 49 ; Diodorus 43 b, 44 ; Daremberg et Saglio, Die
Siculus, i. 97. 4 ; P. Foucart, Le Culte Honnaire des Atitiquith Grecques et
de Dionyse en Attiqiie (Paris, 1904), Romaines,\. 361, 626^^.
pp. 9 sqq., 159 sqq. (M^moires de ^ Daremberg et Saglio, o/. «V. i. 626.
4 DTOiXVSUS CHAP.
wind.^ He was the patron of cultivated trees ; '^ prayers were
offered to him that he would make the trees grow ; ^ and he
was especially honoured by husbandmen, chiefly fruit-growers,
who set up an image of him, in the shape of a natural tree-
stump, in their orchards.* He was said to have discovered
all tree-fruits, amongst which apples and figs are particularly
mentioned ; ^ and he was referred to as " well-fruited,"
" he of the green fruit," and " making the fruit to grow." ^
One of his titles was " teeming " or " bursting " (as of sap I
or blossoms) ; '^ and there was a Flowery Dionysus in Attica
and at Patrae in Achaia.^ The Athenians sacrificed to him
for the prosperity of the fruits of the land.^ Amongst the
trees particularly sacred to him, in addition to the vine,
was the pine-tree.^*^ The Delphic oracle commanded the
Corinthians to worship a particular pine-tree " equally with
the god," so they made two images of Dionysus out of it,
with red faces and gilt bodies.^^ In art a wand, tipped with
a pine-cone, is commonly carried by the god or his
worshippers.^^ Again, the ivy and the fig-tree were especially
associated with him. In the Attic township of Acharnae
there was a Dionysus Ivy;^^ at Lacedaemon there was a
Fig Dionysus ; and in Naxos, where figs were called ineilicha,
there was a Dionysus Meilichios, the face of whose image
was made of fig-wood.^* ^
1 P. Wendland und O. Kern, However, the words may equally well
Beitrdge zur Geschichte dei- gricchischen refer to the cereal crops.
Philosophie und Religion (Berlin, lo Plutarch, Qtiaest. Conviv. v. 3.
1895) pp. 79 sqq. ; Ch. Michel, Re- n Pausanias, ii. 2. 6 sq. Pausanias
rue:/ d^ Inscriptions Grecques (Brussels, joes not mention the kind of tree ;
1900), No. 856. but from Euripides, Bacchae, 1064
-^ Qoxx,^\.^^,TheologtaeGraecaeCom. ^^^_^ ^^^ Philostratus, Imag. i. 17
pendium, 30. ^ ^ ^, ^ ^ . (i8), we may infer that it was a pine,
3 Pmdar, quoted by Plutarch, his though Theocritus (xxvi. 11) speaks of
ctOsins,T,S- _ it as a mastich-tree. i
* Maximus lyrms, Dissertat. vni. 1. lo ,» ., t^t- , ^ , , ,
5 Athenaeus, iii. chs. 14 and 23, , ' MUller-Wieseler, Denkmdler der
pp 78 C 82 D '^^^^" Kunst, 11. pll. xxxu. sqq. ; A.
6 OrpMca, Hymn 1. 4. liii. 8. Baumeister, Denkmdler des klassischen
7 Aelian, Var. Hist. iii. 41 ; Alter turns, 1. figures 489, 491, 492,
Hesychius, s.v. *X^4s]. Compare 495. Compare F. Lenormant, m
Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. v. 8. 3. Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des
8 Pausanias, i. 31- 4 ; id. vii. 21. ^ntiqmtjs Grecques et Romaines, 1.
g 023; Ch. t. Lobeck, Aglaophanius
■9 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip- (Konigsberg, 1829), p. 700.
tionum Gi-ciecarum^^ No. 636, vol. Pausanias, i. 31. 6.
ii. p. 435, rCiv Kapwwv tQv ev rrj x^pa. '* Athenaeus, iii. 14, p. 78 C.
I DIONYSUS 5
Further, there are indications, few but significant, that Dionysus
Dionysus was conceived as a deity of agriculture and the ^^ ^ sod of
TT- r !• 1/-1- agriculture
corn. He is spoken of as himself doing the work of a and the
husbandman : ^ he is reported to have been the first to yoke '^°'^"'
oxen to the plough, which before had been dragged by hand
alone ; and some people found in this tradition the clue to
the bovine shape in which, as we shall see, the god was
often supposed to present himself to his worshippers. Thus
guiding the ploughshare and scattering the seed as he went,
Dionysus is said to have eased the labour of the husband-
man.2 Further, we are told that in the land of the Bisaltae,
a Thracian tribe, there was a great and fair sanctuary
of Dionysus, where at his festival a bright light shone
forth at night as a token of an abundant harvest vouch-
safed by the deity ; but if the crops were to fail that year,
the mystic light was not seen, darkness brooded over the
sanctuary as at other times.^ Moreover, among the emblems The win-
of Dionysus was the winnowing-fan, that is the large open "°^^'"g-fan
■' & » ^ i:^ as an em-
shovel-shaped basket, which down to modern times has been biem of
used by farmers to separate the grain from the chaff by '^"y^"^'
tossing the corn in the air. This simple agricultural instru-
ment figured in the mystic rites of Dionysus ; indeed the
god is traditionally said to have been placed at birth in a
winnowing-fan as in a cradle : in art he is represented as an
infant so cradled ; and from these traditions and representa- -,
tions he derived the epithet of Liknites^ that is, " He of the
Winnowing-fan." *
At first sight this symbolism might be explained Use of the
very simply and naturally by supposing that the divine ^'"fa^jo
1 Himerius, Orat. i. lO, Aiovvcros and admirably interpreted by Miss J. ^"^^
yewpyeZ E. Harrison in her article " Mystica
^ Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. I -3, iv. Vannus lacchi," Journal of Hellenic
4. I sq. On the agricultural aspect of Studies, xxiii. (1903) pp. 292-324.
Dionysus, see L. R. Farnell, The Cults Compare her Prolegomena to the Study
of the Greek States, v. (Oxford, 1909) of Greek Religion- (Cambridge, 1908),
pp. 123 sg. pp. 517 sqq. I must refer the reader
^ [Aristotle,] Mirah. Auscult. 122 to these works for full details on the
(p. 842 A, ed. Im. Bekker, Berlin subject. In the passage of Servius
edition). referred to the reading is somewhat
* Servius on Virgil, Georg. i. 166; uncertain; in his critical edition G.
Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35. The Thilo reads Xt/f/i^jTr^c and Xt(f/i6s instead
literary and monumental evidence as of the usual ^ikvittiv and TiiKfdv. But
to the winnowing-fan in the myth and the variation does not affect the mean-
ritual of Dionysus has been collected ing.
6 DIONYSUS CHAP.
infant cradled in the winnowing-fan was identified with
the corn which it is the function of the instrument to
winnow and sift. Yet against this identification it may be
urged with reason that the use of a winnowing-fan as a
cradle was not peculiar to Dionysus ; it was a regular
practice with the ancient Greeks to place their infants in
winnowing-fans as an omen of wealth and fertility for the
future life of the children.^ Customs of the same sort have
been observed, apparently for similar reasons, by other
peoples in other lands. For example, in Java it is or used
to be customary to place every child at birth in a bamboo
basket like the sieve or winnowing-basket which Javanese
farmers use for separating the rice from the chafif.^ It is
the midwife who places the child in the basket, and as she
does so she suddenly knocks with the palms of both hands
on the basket in order that the child may not be timid and
fearful. Then she addresses the child thus : " Cry not, for
Njaf-among and Kaki-among " (two spirits) " are watching
over you." Next she addresses these two spirits, saying,
" Bring not your grandchild to the road, lest he be trampled
by a horse ; bring him not to the bank of the river, lest he
fall into the river." The object of the ceremony is said to
be that these two spirits should always and everywhere guard
the child.^ On the first anniversary of a child's birthday the
Chinese of Foo-Chow set the little one in a large bamboo
sieve, such as farmers employ in winnowing grain, and in the
sieve they place along with the child a variety of articles,
such as fruits, gold or silver ornaments, a set of money-scales,
books, a pencil, pen, ink, paper, and so on, and they draw
omens of the child's future career from the object which it
first handles and plays with. Thus, if the infant first grasps
the money-scale, he will be wealthy ; if he seizes on a book,
he will be learned, and so forth.^ In the Bilaspore district
1 'E:* 7ap XeiKvois rb Tra\aLbi> KareKol- Eerste Deel (1843), p. 695 ; P. J. Veth,
lu^ov TO. ^pi(pi) TrXovTov Kal Kapwoiis Java (Haarlem, 1875-1884), i. 639.
olwift-^bfievoL, Scholiast on Callimachus, ^ C. Poensen, " lets over de kleed-
i. 4S {Ca//tmac^ea, edidit O. Schneider, ing der Javanen," Mededeelmgen van
Leipsic, 1870-1873, vol. i. p. 109). wege het Nederlaiidsche Zendeling-
^ T. S. Raffles, History of Java genootschap, xx. (1876) pp. 279 sq.
(London, 1817), i. 323 ; C. F. Winter, * Rev. J. Doolittle, Social Life of the
"Instellingen,Gewoontenen Gebruiken Chinese, edited and revised by the
der Javanen te Soerakarta," Tijdschrift Rev. Paxton Hood (London, 1868),
voor Neerlands Indie, Vijfde Jaargang, pp. 90 sq.
I DIONYSUS 7
of India it is customary for well-to-do people to place a new-
born infant in a winnowing-fan filled with rice and after-
wards to give the grain to the nurse in attendance.^ In
Upper Egypt a newly-born babe is immediately laid upon a
corn-sieve and corn is scattered around it ; moreover, on the
seventh day after birth the infant is carried on a sieve through
the whole house, while the midwife scatters wheat, barle}^,
pease and salt. The intention of these ceremonies is The win-
said to be to avert evil spirits from the child,^ and a like "°w'"g-fan
*^ ' sometimes
motive is assigned by other peoples for the practice of intended to
placing newborn infants in a winnowing-basket or corn-sieve. sDh-uT'^
For example, in the Punjaub, when several children of a children.
family have died in succession, a new baby will sometimes
be put at birth into an old winnowing-basket {chhaj) along
with the sweepings of the house, and so dragged out into
the yard ; such a child may, like Dionysus, in after life be
known by the name of Winnowing-basket {Ch/iajju) or
Dragged {Ghasitd)? The object of treating the child in this
way seems to be to save its life by deceiving the spirits, who
are supposed to have carried off its elder brothers and sisters ;
these malevolent beings are on the look-out for the new baby,
but they will never think of raking for it in the dust-bin,
that being the last place where they would expect to find
the hope of the family. The same may perhaps be the
intention of a ceremony observed by the Gaolis of the
Deccan. As soon as a child is born, it is bathed and then
placed on a sieve for a few minutes. On the fifth day
the sieve, with a lime and pan leaves on it, is removed
outside the house and then, after the worship of Chetti
has been performed, the sieve is thrown away on the
^ Rev. E. M. Gordon, "Some Notes Names," Indian Antiquary, x. (1881)
concerning the People of Mungell pp. 331 sq. Compare H. A. Rose,
Tahsil, Bilaspur District,"y(7«r«a/^//^^ "Hindu Birth Observances in the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, Ixxi., Part V\m)?Co,^' Journal of the Royal Anthropo-
iii. (Calcutta, 1903) p. 74 ; id., Indian logical Institute, xxxvii. (1907) p. 234.
Folk Tales (London, 1908), p. 41. See also Panjab Notes and Queries,
2 n -u j^j ■ B!^ "^°'- "'• August 1886, § 768, pp.
2 C. B. Klunzmger^z/^r aus jg^ . ..^^e winnowing fan in
Oberdgypten {SiMiig^xi, 1S77), pp. 181, ^^ich a newly-born child is laid, is
182 ; 7d., upper Egypt its People and ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^ f^^ ^^e worship
Products (London, 1878), pp. 185, ^f Satwai. This makes it impure, and
it is henceforward used only for the
^ R. C. Temple, " Opprobrious house-sweepings."
DIONYSUS
Use of the
winnow-
ing-fan to
avert evil
from
children
ill India,
Mada-
gascar, and
China.
road.^ Again, the same notion of rescuing the child from
dangerous spirits comes out very clearly in a similar
custom observed by the natives of Laos, a province of
Siam. These people " believe that an infant is the child,
not of its parents, but of the spirits, and in this belief they
go through the following formalities. As soon as an infant
is born it is bathed and dressed, laid upon a rice-sieve, and
placed — by the grandmother if present, if not, by the next
near female relative — at the head of the stairs or of the
ladder leading to the house. The person performing this
duty calls out in a loud tone to the spirits to come and take
the child away to-day, or for ever after to let it alone ;
at the same moment she stamps violently on the floor to
frighten the child, or give it a jerk, and make it cry. If it
does not cry this is regarded as an evil omen. If, on the
other hand, it follows the ordinary laws of nature and begins
to exercise its vocal organs, it is supposed to have a happy
and prosperous life before it. Sometimes the spirits do
come and take the infant away, i.e. it dies before it is twenty-
four hours old, but, to prevent such a calamity, strings are
tied round its wrists on the first night after its birth, and
if it sickens or is feeble the spirit-doctors are called in to
prescribe certain offerings to be made to keep away the very
spirits who, only a few hours previously, were ceremoniously
called upon to come and carrj^ the child off. On the day
after its birth the child is regarded as being the property no
longer of the spirits, who could have taken it if they had
wanted it, but of the parents, who forthwith sell it to some
relation for a nominal sum — an eighth or a quarter of a
rupee perhaps. This again is a further guarantee against
molestation by the spirits, who apparently are regarded as
honest folk that would not stoop to take what has been
bought and paid for." ^
A like intention of averting evil in some shape from a
child is assigned in other cases of the same custom. Thus
in Travancore, " if an infant is observed to distort its limbs
as if in pain, it is supposed to be under the pressure of some
one who has stooped over it, to relieve which the mother
1 Lieut.-Colonel Gunthorpe, "On
the Ghosi or Gaddi Gaoh's of the Dec-
can," Journal of the Anthropological
Society of Bombay, i. 45.
- C. Bock, Temples and Elephants
(London, 1884), pp. 258 si/.
I DIONYSUS 9
places it with a nut-cracker on a winnowing fan and shakes
it three or four times." ^ Again, among the Tanala people
of Madagascar almost all children born in the unlucky month
of Faosa are buried alive in the forest. But if the parents
resolve to let the child live, they must call in the aid of a
diviner, who performs a ceremony for averting the threatened
ill-luck. The child is placed in a winnowing-fan along with
certain herbs. Further, the diviner takes herbs of the same
sort, a worn-out spade, and an axe, fastens them to the
father's spear, and sets the spear up in the ground. Then
the child is bathed in water which has been medicated with
some of the same herbs. Finally the diviner says : " The
worn-out spade to the grandchild ; may it (the child) not
despoil its father, may it not despoil its mother, may it not
despoil the children ; let it be good." This ceremony, we
are told, " puts an end to the child's evil days, and the father
gets the spear to put away all evil. The child then joins its
father and mother ; its evil days are averted, and the water
and the other things are buried, for they account them evil."^
Similarly the ancient Greeks used to bury, or throw into the
sea, or deposit at cross-roads, the things that had been
used in ceremonies of purification, no doubt because the
things were supposed to be tainted by the evil which had
been transferred to them in the rites.^ Another example of
the use of a winnowing-fan in what may be called a purificatory
ceremony is furnished by the practice of the Chinese of Foo-
Chow. A lad who is suffering from small-pox is made to
squat in a large winnowing sieve. On his head is placed a
piece of red cloth, and on the cloth are laid some parched
beans, which are then allowed to roll off. As the name for
beans, pronounced in the local dialect, is identical with the
common name for small-pox, and as moreover the scars left
by the pustules are thought to resemble beans, it appears to
be imagined that just as the beans roll off the boy's head, so
will the pustules vanish from his body without leaving a
1 S. Mateer, Native Life in Travan- Reprint of the First Foitr Ntimbers
core (London, 1883), p. 213. (Antananarivo, 1885), pp. 226 sq.
3 Pausanias, ii. 31. 8; K. F. Her-
2 J. Richardson, "Tanala Customs, mann, Lehrbuch der gottesdieiistlichen
Superstitions, and Beliefs," Antanana- Altertkiiiner der Griechen"^ [UQideXhtrg,
rivo Annual and Madagascar Afagazine, 1858), pp. 132 sq., § 23, 25.
DIONYSUS
Karen
ceremony
of fanning
away evils
from
children.
Among the
reasons for
the use of
the win-
iiowing-fan
in birth-
rites may
have been
the wish
to avert
evils and
to promote
fertility and
growth.
trace behind.^ Thus the cure depends on the principle
of homoeopathic magic. Perhaps on the same principle a
winnowing-fan is employed in the ceremony from a notion
that it will help to waft or fan away the disease like chaff
from the grain. We may compare a purificatory ceremony
observed by the Karens of Burma at the naming of a new-
born child. Amongst these people "children are supposed
to come into the world defiled, and unless that defilement is
removed, they will be unfortunate, and unsuccessful in their
undertakings. An Elder takes a thin splint of bamboo,
and, tying a noose at one end, he fans it down the child's
arm, saying :
' Fan away ill luck, fan away ill success :
Fan away inability, fan away unskilfulness :
Fan away slow growth, fan away difficulty of growth :
Fan away stunted?iess, fan away puniness :
Fan away drowsiness, fa?t away stupidity :
Fan away debasedness, fan away wretchedness :
Fan away the whole completely.^
" The Elder now changes his motion and fans up the child's
arm, saying :
' Fan on power, fan on influence :
Fan on the paddy bin, fan on the paddy barft :
Fan on followers, fan on dependants :
Fan on good things, fan on appropriate things.^ " *
Thus in some of the foregoing instances the employment
of the winnowing-fan may have been suggested by the proper
use of the implement as a means of separating the corn from
the chaff, the same operation being extended by analogy to
rid men of evils of various sorts which would otherwise adhere
to them like husks to the grain. It was in this way that
the ancients explained the use of the winnowing-fan in the
mysteries.^ But one motive, and perhaps the original one.
* Rev. J. Doolittle, Social Life of the
Chinese, edited and revised by the Rev.
Paxton Hood (London, 1868), pp. 114
sq. The beans used in the ceremony
had previously been placed before an
image of the goddess of small-pox.
2 Rev. F. Mason, D.D., "Physical
Character of the Karens," fourncd of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New
Series, No. cxxxi. (Calcutta,
pp. 9 sq.
1866),
2 Servius on Virgil, Georg. i. 166 :
" Et vannus lacchi . . . ATystica autem
Bacchi ideo ait, quod Libert patris sacra
ad piirgationem animae pertitubant : et
sic homines ejus mysteriis purgabantur,
sicut vannis frumenta purgantur.''
I DIONYSUS II
for setting a newborn child in a winnowing-fan and surround-
ing it with corn was probably the wish to communicate to
the infant, on the principle of sympathetic magic, the fertility
and especially the power of growth possessed by the grain.
This was in substance the explanation which W. Mannhardt
gave of the custom.^ He rightly insisted on the analogy
which many peoples, and in particular the ancient Greeks,
have traced between the sowing of seed and the begetting
of children,^ and he confirmed his view of the function of
the winnowing-fan in these ceremonies by aptly comparing
a German custom of sowing barley or flax seed over weakly
and stunted children in the belief that this will make them
grow with the growth of the barley or the flax.^ An
Esthonian mode of accomplishing the same object is to set
the child in the middle of a plot of ground where a sower is
sowing hemp and to leave the little one there till the sowing
is finished ; after that they imagine that the child will shoot
up in stature like the hemp which has just been sown/
With the foregoing evidence before us of a widespread useofthe
custom of placing newborn children in winnowing-fans we wmnow-
*■ ° '^ ing-fan in
clearly cannot argue that Dionysus must necessarily have the rites of
been a god of the corn because Greek tradition and Greek Dionysus.
art represent him as an infant cradled in a winnowing-fan.
The argument would prove too much, for it would apply
equally to all the infants that have been so cradled in all
parts of the world. We cannot even press the argument
drawn from the surname " He of the Winnowing-fan " which
was borne by Dionysus, since we have seen that similar
names are borne for similar reasons in India by persons who
have no claim whatever to be regarded as deities of the corn.
Yet when all necessary deductions have been made on this
score, the association of Dionysus with the winnowing-fan
appears to be too intimate to be explained away as a mere
reminiscence of a practice to which every Greek baby, whether
1 W. Mannhardt, "Kind und Korn," L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen
Mythologische Forschungen (Strasburg, aus dent Herzogthtim Oldenburg [Ol&zn-
1884), pp. 351-374. burg, 1867), i. 81.
2 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. pp. 351
sqq. ■* Boeder -Kreutzwald, Der Ehsten
3 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 372, abergldubische Gebrduche (St. Peters-
citing A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volks- burg, 1854), p. 61. This custom is
a^er^Aj«3«2(Berlin, 1869), p. 339,§543; also cited by Mannhardt [I.e.).
DIONYSUS
Myth ol
the death
and resur-
rection of
Dionysus.
human or divine, had to submit. That practice would hardly
account either for the use of the winnowing- fan in the
mysteries or for the appearance of the implement, filled with
fruitage of various kinds, on the monuments which set forth
the ritual of Dionysus.^ This last emblem points plainly to
a conception of the god as a personification of the fruits of
the earth in general ; and as if to emphasise the idea of
fecundity conveyed by such a symbol there sometimes
appears among the fruits in the winnowing-fan an effigy of
the male organ of generation. The prominent place which
that effigy occupied in the worship of Dionysus^ hints broadly,
if it does not strictly prove, that to the Greek mind the
god stood for the powers of fertility in general, animal as
well as vegetable. In the thought of the ancients no sharp
line of distinction divided the fertility of animals from the
fertility of plants ; rather the two ideas met and blended
in a nebulous haze. We need not wonder, therefore, that
the same coarse but expressive emblem figured conspicuously
in the ritual of Father Liber, the Italian counterpart of
Dionysus, who in return for the homage paid to the symbol
of his creative energy was believed to foster the growth of
the crops and to guard the fields against the powers of evil.^
Like the other gods of vegetation whom we considered in
the last volume, Dionysus was believed to have died a violent
death, but to have been brought to life again ; and his suffer-
ings, death, and resurrection were enacted in his sacred rites.
His tragic story is thus told by the poet Nonnus. Zeus in
the form of a serpent visited Persephone, and she bore him
Zagreus, that is, Dionysus, a horned infant. Scarcely was
he born, when the babe mounted the throne of his father
Zeus and mimicked the great god by brandishing the
lightning in his tiny hand. But he did not occupy the
throne long ; for the treacherous Titans, their faces whitened
with chalk, attacked him with knives while he was looking
^ Miss J. E. Harrison, " Mystica
Vannus lacchi," Journal of Hellenic
Siudies, xxiii. (1903) pp. 296 sgq. ;
id. , Frolegometia to the Study of Greek
Religion,- -pT^. 518 j-^^.; L. R. Farnell,
The Cults of the Greek States, v.
(Oxford, 1909) p. 243.
2 Herodotus, ii. 48, 49 ; Clement of
Alexandria, Protrept. ii. 34, pp. 29-
30, ed. Potter ; Dittenberger, Sylloge
Insc7-iptionum Graecaru/n,'^ No. 19,
vol. i. p. 32 ; M. P. Nilsson, Studia
de Dionysiis Atticis (Lund, 1900), pp.
90 sqq. ; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of
the Greek States, v. 125, 195, 205.
•' Augustine, De civitate Dei, vii. 21.
I DIONYSUS 13
at himself in a mirror. For a time he evaded their assaults
by turning himself into various shapes, assuming the likeness
successively of Zeus and Cronus, of a young man, of a lion,
a horse, and a serpent. Finally, in the form of a bull, he
was cut to pieces by the murderous knives of his enemies.^
His Cretan myth, as related by Firmicus Maternus, ran thus.
He was said to have been the bastard son of Jupiter, a
Cretan king. Going abroad, Jupiter transferred the throne and
sceptre to the youthful Dionysus, but, knowing that his wife
Juno cherished a jealous dislike of the child, he entrusted
Dionysus to the care of guards upon whose fidelity he
believed he could rely. Juno, however, bribed the guards,
and amusing the child with rattles and a cunningly-wrought
looking-glass lured him into an ambush, where her satellites,
the Titans, rushed upon him, cut him limb from limb, boiled
his body with various herbs, and ate it. But his sister
Minerva, who had shared in the deed, kept his heart and
gave it to Jupiter on his return, revealing to him the whole
history of the crime. In his rage, Jupiter put the Titans to
death by torture, and, to soothe his grief for the loss of his
son, made an image in which he enclosed the child's heart,
and then built a temple in his honour.'^ In this version a
Euhemeristic turn has been given to the myth by repre-
senting Jupiter and Juno (Zeus and Hera) as a king and
queen of Crete. The guards referred to are the mythical
Curetes who danced a war-dance round the infant Dionysus,
as they are said to have done round the infant Zeus.^
Very noteworthy is the legend, recorded both by Nonnus Legend
and Firmicus, that in his infancy Dionysus occupied for a ^^^^^^
short time the throne of his father Zeus. So Proclus tells Dionysus
us that " Dionysus was the last king of the gods appointed for'^^'short
by Zeus. For his father set him on the kingly throne, and time the
placed in his hand the sceptre, and made him king of all the ^^^ f^^^jg^
gods of the world." ^ Such traditions point to a custom of Zeus.
temporarily investing the king's son with the royal dignity
as a preliminary to sacrificing him instead of his father.
1 Nonnus, Dionys. vi. 155-205. Aglaophatnus, pp. iill sqg.
2 Firmicus Maternus, De errore pro- * Proclus on Plato, Cratylus, p. 59,
fanai-um religioiium, 6. quoted by E. Abel, Orphica, p. 228.
3 Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. Compare Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglao-
ii. 17. Compare Ch. A. Lobeck, pha?nus, pp. 552 sq.
14 DIONYSUS CHAP.
Pomegranates were supposed to have sprung from the blood
of Dionysus, as anemones from the blood of Adonis and
violets from the blood of Attis : hence women refrained
from eating seeds of pomegranates at the festival of the
Thesmophoria.^ According to some, the severed limbs of
Dionysus were pieced together, at the command of Zeus, by
Apollo, who buried them on Parnassus.^ The grave of
Dionysus was shewn in the Delphic temple beside a golden
statue of Apollo.^ However, according to another account,
the grave of Dionysus was at Thebes, where he is said to
have been torn in pieces.* Thus far the resurrection of the
slain god is not mentioned, but in other versions of the myth
it is variously related. According to one version, which
represented Dionysus as a son of Zeus and Demeter, his
mother pieced together his mangled limbs and made him
young again.^ In others it is simply said that shortly after
his burial he rose from the dead and ascended up to heaven;®
or that Zeus raised him up as he lay mortally wounded ; ' or
that Zeus swallowed the heart of Dionysus and then begat
him afresh by Semele,^ who in the common legend figures
as mother of Dionysus. Or, again, the heart was pounded
up and given in a portion to Semele, who thereby conceived
him.^
Turning from the myth to the ritual, we find that the
Cretans celebrated a biennial ^^ festival at which the passion
^ Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. by the French,
ii. 19. Compare id. ii. 22 ; Scholiast * S. Clemens Romanus, Recogni-
on Lucian, Dial. Meretr. vii. p. 280, tiones, x. 24 (Migne's Patrologia
ed. H. Rabe. Graeca, i. col. 1434).
^ Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ^ Diodorus Siculus, iii. 62.
ii. 18 ; Proclus on Plato's Zi'waeMj-, iii. ^ Macrobius, Comment, in Somn.
p. 200 D, quoted by Lobeck, Aglao- Scip. i. 12. 12; Scriptores rerum
phamus, p. 562, and by Abel, Orphica, mythicarum Latini tres Roniae nuper
p. 234. Others said that the mangled reperti (commonly referred to as
body was pieced together, not by Apollo Mythographi Vaticani), ed. G. H.
but by Rhea (Cornutus, Theologiae Bode (Cellis, 1834), iii. 12. 5, p, 246;
Graecae CoDipendium, 30). Origen, Contra Celstim, iv. 17 (vol. i.
^ Ch. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, pp. p. 286, ed. P. Koetschau).
<,']2sqq. SeQ The Dying God,^.-^. For ^ Himerius, Orat. ix. 4.
a conjectural restoration of the temple, 8 Proclus, Hymn to Minerva,
based on ancient authorities and an quoted by Ch. A. Lobeck, Aglaopha-
examination of the scanty remains, see mus, p. 561 ; Orphica, ed. E. Abel,
an article by J. H. Middleton, in p. 235.
Journal of Hellenic Studies, ix. (1888) ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 167.
pp. 282 sqq. The ruins of the temple i" The festivals of Dionysus were
have now been completely excavated biennial in many places. See G. F.
I DIONYSUS 15
of Dionysus was represented in every detail. All that he Death and
had done or suffered in his last moments was enacted before '".^^""'f^-
tion of
the eyes of his worshippers, who tore a live bull to pieces Dionysus
with their teeth and roamed the woods with frantic shouts. T^I^^ •
sen ted in
In front of them was carried a casket supposed to contain his rites.
the sacred heart of Dionysus, and to the wild music of
flutes and cymbals they mimicked the rattles by which the
infant god had been lured to his doom.^ Where the
resurrection formed part of the myth, it also was acted at
the rites,^ and it even appears that a general doctrine of
resurrection, or at least of immortality, was inculcated on
the worshippers ; for Plutarch, writing to console his wife on
the death of their infant daughter, comforts her with the
thought of the immortality of the soul as taught by tradition
and revealed in the mysteries of Dionysus,^ A different
form of the myth of the death and resurrection of Dionysus
is that he descended into Hades to bring up his mother
Semele from the dead.^ The local Argive tradition was
that he went down through the Alcyonian lake ; and his
return from the lower world, in other words his resurrection,
was annually celebrated on the spot by the Argives, who
summoned him from the water by trumpet blasts, while
they threw a lamb into the lake as an offering to the
warder of the dead.^ Whether this was a spring festival
does not appear, but the Lydians certainly celebrated the
advent of Dionysus in spring ; the god was supposed to
bring the season with him.^ Deities of vegetation, who are
Schomann, Griechische Alterthiimer,'^ the agricultural processes ; and which
ii. 524 5^^. (The terms for the festival would certainly be consecrated by a
were rpier-qph, TpierrjpiKds, both terms special ritual attached to the god of the
of the series being included in the soil." See L. R. Farnell, TAe Cults
numeration, in accordance with the of the Greek States, v. 180 sq.
ancient mode of reckoning. ) Perhaps ^ Firmicus Maternus, De errore
the festivals were formerly annual and profanarutn religionum, 6.
the period was afterwards lengthened, ^ Mythographi Vaticani, ed. G. H.
as has happened with other festivals. Bode, iii. 12. 5, p. 246.
See W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. ^ Plutarch, Consol. ad uxor. 10.
172, 175, 491, 533 sq., 598. Some Com^2LXt id., Isis et Osiris, -^^ ; id., De
of the festivals of Dionysus, however, E Delphico,^;id.,Deesucarnium,\.'].
were annual. Dr. Farnell has con- * Pausanias, ii. 31. 2 and 37. 5;
jectured that the biennial period in Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 5. 3.
many Greek festivals is to be explained '° Pausanias, ii. 37. 5 sq. ; Plutarch,
by "the original shifting of land- Ists et Osiris, t,^ ; id., Quaest. Conviv.
cultivation which is frequent in early iv. 6. 2.
society owing to the backwardness of ^ Himerius, Orat. iii. 6, xiv. 7.
i6 DIONYSUS CHAP, r-
supposed to pass a certain portion of each year under ground,
naturally come to be regarded as gods of the lower world
or of the dead. Both Dionysus and Osiris were so conceived.^
Dionysus A feature in the mythical character of Dionysus, which
sented in at first sight appears inconsistent with his nature as a deity
the form Qf vesfctation, is that he was often conceived and represented
of a bull. . '^l , , • ,, . , r ,
m animal shape, especially in the lorm, or at least with
the horns, of a bull. Thus he is spoken of as " cow-born,"
"bull," "bull-shaped," "bull-faced," " bull -browed," "bull-
horned," " horn-bearing," " two-horned," " horned." ^ He
was believed to appear, at least occasionally, as a bull.^ His
images were often, as at Cyzicus, made in bull shape,* or
with bull horns ; ^ and he was painted with horns.^ Types
of the horned Dionysus are found amongst the surviving
monuments of antiquity." On one statuette he appears clad
in a bull's hide, the head, horns, and hoofs hanging down
behind.^ Again, he is represented as a child with clusters
of grapes round his brow, and a calfs head, with sprouting
horns, attached to the back of his head.^ On a red-figured
vase the god is portrayed as a calf-headed child seated on a
woman's lap.^° The people of Cynaetha in north-western
Arcadia held a festival of Dionysus in winter, when men,
1 For Dionysus in this capacity see * Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35 ;
F. Lenormant in Daremberg et Saglio, Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 A.
Dictionnaire des Antiqnit^s Grecques 6 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2, iv. 4.
et Romaines, i. 632. For Osiris, see 2; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Corn-
Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, penditun '•o.
pp 344^^. ^. ^^.. .^ 6 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2 ; J. Tzet-
'■ Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, t.^; id., c- 7 7 r ■? „ ^
^ ^ ^ . , ' JJ ; ' zes, Schol. on Lycophron, 20Q, 12^6 ;
Quaest. Graec. 30: Athenaeus, xi. i;i, t,,-, , , ,- • • , , ,
^ , ^,^ ' r A, , ■ Philostratus, Imaptnes, 1. 14(10.
p. 476 a; Clement of Alexandria, , ,, ,, ' „ , \> 7
Protrept. ii. 16 ; Orphica, Hymn xxx. , Muller-Wieseler, Denhndler der
w. 3, 4, xlv. I, Iii. 2, liii. 8 ; '''^'" ^"'"^' "• P'- ''^'""- 5 Daremberg
Euripides, Bacchae, 99 ; Scholiast on ^^ Saglio, Didionnaire des Antiques
Aristophanes, Frogs, 357 ; Nicander, Grecquesjt Romaines, 1. 619 ^^., 631 ;
Alexiphai-maca, 31 ; Lucian, Bacchus, ^^ ■ "• Roscher, Lexikon d grtech. u.
2. The title Wpa^pt^Tr,, applied to ''"'"■ Myt^^ologie, i- ii49 sqq ; F.
Dionysus {Homeric Hymns, xxxiv. 2 ; Imhoof-Blumer,, " Coin-types of some
Porphyry, De abstinentia, iii. 17; Kilikian Cities,,' >«r««/ </ Zr^//^«?^
Dionysius, Perieg. 576 ; Etymologicum Studies, xviu. (1898) p. 165.
Magnum,-^. 371. 57) is etymologically * F- G. Welcker, Alte Denkmdler
equivalent to the Sanscrit varsabha, (Gottingen, 1849- 1864), v. taf. 2.
"a bull," as I was informed by my ^ Archaeologische Zeitung, ix.
lamented friend the late R. A. Neil of (1851) pi. xxxiii. , with Gerhard's
Pembroke College, Cambridge. remarks, pp. 371-373.
3 Euripides, Bacchae, 920 sqq., '" Gazette ArchMogiqiie, v. (1879)
1017 ; Nonnus, Dionys. vi. 197 sqq. pi. 3.
DIONYSUS
17
r who had greased their bodies with oil for the occasion, used
■-' to pick out a bull from the herd and carry it to the sanctuary
of the god. Dionysus was supposed to inspire their choice
of the particular bull,^ which probably represented the deity
himself; for at his festivals he was believed to appear in
bull form. The women of Elis hailed him as a bull, and
prayed him to come with his bull's foot. They sang, " Come
hither, Dionysus, to thy holy temple by the sea ; come with
the Graces to thy temple, rushing with thy bull's foot, O
goodly bull, O goodly bull ! " ' The Bacchanals of Thrace
wore horns in imitation of their god.^ According to the
myth, it was in the shape of a bull that he was torn to
pieces by the Titans ; ^ and the Cretans, when they acted
the sufferings and death of Dionysus, tore a live bull to
pieces with their teeth.^ Indeed, the rending and devouring
of live bulls and calves appear to have been a regular feature
of the Dionysiac rites.*^ When we consider the practice of
portraying the god as a bull or with some of the features of
the animal, the belief that he appeared in bull form to his
worshippers at the sacred rites, and the legend that in bull
form he had been torn in pieces, we cannot doubt that in
rending and devouring a live bull at his festival the
worshippers of Dionysus believed themselves to be killing
the god, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood.
Another animal whose form Dionysus assumed was the Dionysus
goat. One of his names was " Kid." ^ At Athens and at
Hermion he was worshipped under the title of " the one of
the Black Goatskin," and a legend ran that on a certain
occasion he had appeared clad in the skin from which he
took the title.^ In the wine-growing district of Phlius, where
in autumn the plain is still thickly mantled with the red and
1 Pausanias, viii. 19. 2. on which there is a marginal gloss
2 Plutarch, Quaestioiies Graecae, t,6; fxiKphs al'l, 6 eV ry 'iapi 4>aivl)fxevos,
id., Isis et Osiris, 35. ^'i°^'^ ° Tpwi^os ; Stephanus Byzantius,
3 J. Tzetzes, ScAol. on Lycophron, '-^ '^'<P^P^[^- ..
J2,5 * Pausanias, 11. 35. I ; bcnoliast on
* Nonnus, Dionys. vi. 205. Aristophanes, Acharn 146; Etymolo-
. „. . ,, „ ncu?fi ]\Ianm>?i, s.v. ATrarof/atci, p. 1 18.
» Firmicus Maternus, De errorepro- . g^j^^^^ ^_^^_ 'A,raToi)p:a and
fanaru7n religionum, 6. ^eXa.ai^Sa ^^bvmov ; Nonnus, Dionys.
6 Euripides, Bacchae, 735 sqq. ; xxvii. 302. Compare Conon, Narrat.
Scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs, 357. ^g^ where for MeXavdidr, we should
'^ Hesychius, s.v. "Epirpos 6 ALbwaos, perhaps read MeXavalyiOi.
PT. V. VOL. I C
as a goat.
1 8 DIONYSUS CHAP.
golden foliage of the fading vines, there stood of old a
bronze image of a goat, which the husbandmen plastered
with gold-leaf as a means of protecting their vines against
blight.^ The image probably represented the vine-god
himself To save him from the wrath of Hera, his father
Zeus changed the youthful Dionysus into a kid ; ^ and when
the gods fled to Egypt to escape the fury of Typhon,
Live goats Dionysus was turned into a goat.^ Hence when his
d^^ourli worshippers rent in pieces a live goat and devoured it raw,*
by his wor- they must have believed that they were eating the body and
shippers. ^j^^^ ^^ ^j^g g^^
Custom of The custom of tearing in pieces the bodies of animals
rending ^^^ ^f ,^q^ ^nd then devouring them raw has been practised
devouring as a religious rite by savages in modern times. We need
and men "°^ therefore dismiss as a fable the testimony of antiquity
as a re- to the observance of similar rites among the frenzied
igious nte. ^Qj-gi^ippej-s of Bacchus. An English missionary to the Coast
cannibal- Indians of British Columbia has thus described a scene like
ism among |.]-jg cannibal orgies of the Bacchanals. After mentioning that
the Indians 11, r 1 1 11
of British an old chicf had ordered a female slave to be dragged to
Columbia, ^j^g beach, murdered, and thrown into the water, he proceeds
as follows : " I did not see the murder, but, immediately
after, I saw crowds of people running out of those houses
near to where the corpse was thrown, and forming them-
selves into groups at a good distance away. This I learnt
was from fear of what was to follow Presently two bands
of furious wretches appeared, each headed by a man in a
state of nudity. They gave vent to the most unearthly
sounds, and the two naked men made themselves look as
unearthly as possible, proceeding in a creeping kind of
stoop, and stepping like two proud horses, at the same time
1 Pausanias, ii. 1 3. 6. On their As fawns appear to have been also torn
return from Troy the Greeks are said in pieces at the rites of Dionysus
to have found goats and an image of (Photius, Lexicon, s.v. ve^pl^eiv ;
Dionysusin a cave of Euboea( Pausanias, Harpocration, s.v. ve^pli^wv), it is
i. 23. I). probable that the fawn was another of
2 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 4. 3. the god's embodiments. But of this
3 Ovid, ]Metai7t. v. 329 ; Antoninus there seems no direct evidence. Fawn-
Liberalis, Transfortn. 28 ; Mythographi skins were worn both by the god and
Vaticani, ed. G. H. Bode, i. 86, p. his worshippers (Cornutus, Theologiae
29. Graecae Compendium, 30). Similarly
■* Arnobius, Adversus naiiofies, v. the female Bacchanals wore goat-skins
19. Compare Suidas, s.v. alyi^dv. (Hesychius, s.v. rpaytjcpdpoi).
4
I DIONYSUS 19
shooting forward each arm alternately, which they held out
at full length for a little time in the most defiant manner.
Besides this, the continual jerking their heads back, causing
their long black hair to twist about, added much to their
savage appearance. For some time they pretended to be
seeking the body, and the instant they came where it lay
they commenced screaming and rushing round it like so
many angry wolves. Finally they seized it, dragged it out
of the water, and laid it on the beach, where I was told the
naked men would commence tearing it to pieces with their
teeth. The two bands of men immediately surrounded
them, and so hid their horrid work. In a few minutes
the crowd broke into two, when each of the naked cannibals
appeared with half of the body in his hands. Separating
a few yards, they commenced, amid horrid yells, their still
more horrid feast. The sight was too terrible to behold.
I left the gallery with a depressed heart. I may mention
that the two bands of savages just alluded to belong to that
class which the whites term ' medicine-men.' " The same
writer informs us that at the winter ceremonials of these
Indians " the cannibal, on such occasions, is generally
supplied with two, three, or four human bodies, which he
tears to pieces before his audience. Several persons, either
from bravado or as a charm, present their arms for him
to bite. I have seen several whom he has bitten, and I hear
two have died from the effects." And when corpses were
not forthcoming, these cannibals apparently seized and
devoured living people. Mr. Duncan has seen hundreds of
the Tsimshian Indians sitting in their canoes which they
had just pushed off from the shore in order to escape being
torn to pieces by a party of prowling cannibals. Others
of these Indians contented themselves with tearing dogs
to pieces, while their attendants kept up a growling noise,
or a whoop, " which was seconded by a screeching noise
made from an instrument which they believe to be the abode
of a spirit." ^
^ Mr. Duncan, quoted by Commander was no doubt a bull-roarer, a flat piece
R. C. Mayne, Four Years in British of stick whirled at the end of a string so
Columbia and Vancouver Island (Lon- as to produce a droning or screaming
don, 1862), pp. 284-288. The instru- note according to the speed of revolu-
ment which made the screeching sound tion. Such instruments are used by
20 DIONYSUS CHAP.
Religious Mr. Duncan's account of these savage rites has been
societies of j-^jj^ borne out by later observation. Among the Kwakiutl
and Dog- Indians the Cannibals {Hamatsas) are the highest in rank of
amon<^ the ^^^ Secret Societies. They devour corpses, bite pieces out
Indians of of living people, and formerly ate slaves who had been
Columbia, killed for the purpose. But when their fury has subsided,
they are obliged to pay compensation to the persons whom
they have bitten and to the owners of slaves whom they
have killed. The indemnity consists sometimes of blankets,
sometimes of canoes. In the latter case the tariff is fixed :
one bite, one canoe. For some time after eating human
flesh the cannibal has to observe a great many rules, which
regulate his eating and drinking, his going out and his
coming in, his clothing and his intercourse with his wife.^
Similar customs prevail among other tribes of the same
coast, such as the Bella Coola, the Tsimshian, the Niska,
and the Nootka. In the Nootka tribe members of the
Panther Society tear dogs to pieces and devour them. They
wear masks armed with canine teeth.^ So among the
Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands there is one
religion of cannibalism and another of dog-eating. The
cannibals in a state of frenzy, real or pretended, bite flesh
out of the extended arms of their fellow villagers. When
they issue forth with cries of Hop-pop to observe this solemn
rite, all who are of a different religious persuasion make
haste to get out of their way ; but men of the cannibal creed
and of stout hearts will resolutely hold out their arms to be
the Koskimo Indians of the same eating of human flesh, see Taboo and
region at their cannibal and other the Perils of the Soul, 'p'p. 1 88- 1 90.
rites. See Fr. Boas, " The Social ^ Fr. Boas, " The Social Organiza-
Organization and the Secret Societies tion and the Secret Societies of the
of the Kwakiutl Indians," Report of Kwakiutl Indians," Report of the U.S.
the U.S. National Museum for i8gs National Museum for j8g^ (Washing-
(Washington, 1897), pp. 610, 611. ton, 1897), pp. 649 sq., 658 sq.; id.,
in "Sixth Report on the North-
1 Fr. Boas, op. cit. pp. 437-443, western Tribes of Canada," Report of
527 sq., 536, 537 sq., 579, 664; id., the British Association for i8go, p. 51;
in " Fifth Report on the North-western (separate reprint); id., "Seventh
TrihtsoiC^ndiAa.,'''' Report of the British Report on the North-western Tribes
.-fw^«a/'/(7«/^;-7(S'<5*9, pp. 54-56 (separate of Canada," Report of the British
reprint) ; id., in " Sixth Report on the Association for i8gi, pp. 10 sq. (separ-
North - western Tribes of Canada," ate reprint);.?^., "Tenth Report onj
Report of the British Association for the North-western Tribes of Canada,"!
i8go, pp. 62, 65 sq. (separate reprint). Report of the British Association fort
As to the rules observed after the f8gj, p. 58 (separate reprint).
I DIONYSUS 21
bitten. The sect of dog-eaters cut or tear dogs to pieces
and devour some of the flesh ; but they have to pay for the
dogs which they consume in their reh'gious enthusiasm.-^
In the performance of these savage rites the frenzied actors
are beheved to be inspired by a Cannibal Spirit and a
Dog-eating Spirit respectively.^ Again, in Morocco there is Live goats
an order of saints known as Isowa or Aisawa, followers of "^^"^ "^ ^
' pieces and
Mohammed ben Isa or Aisa of Mequinez, whose tomb is at devoured
Fez. Every year on their founder's birthday they assemble j^ anatics
at his shrine or elsewhere and holding each other's hands Morocco,
dance a frantic dance round a fire. " While the mad dance
is still proceeding, a sudden rush is made from the sanctuary,
and the dancers, like men delirious, speed away to a place
where live goats are tethered in readiness. At sight of these
animals the fury of the savage and excited crowd reaches its
height. In a few minutes the wretched animals are cut, or
rather torn to pieces, and an orgy takes place over the raw
and quivering flesh. When they seem satiated, the
Emkaddim, who is generally on horseback, and carries a
long stick, forms a sort of procession, preceded by wild
music, if such discordant sounds will bear the name.
Words can do no justice to the frightful scene which now
ensues. The naked savages — for on these occasions a
scanty piece of cotton is all their clothing — with their long
black hair, ordinarily worn in plaits, tossed about by the
rapid to-and-fro movements of the head, with faces and
hands reeking with blood, and uttering loud cries resembling
the bleating of goats, again enter the town. The place is
now at their mercy, and the people avoid them as much as
possible by shutting themselves up in their houses. A
Christian or a Jew would run great risk of losing his life if
either were found in the street. Goats are pushed out from
the doors, and these the fanatics tear immediately to pieces
with their hands, and then dispute over the morsels of
* G. M. Dawson, Report on the Museum of Natural History). Forde-
Qiteen Charlottle Islands, j8j8 (Mon- tails as to the practice of these savage
treal, 1880), pp. 125 B, 128 B. rites among the Indian coast tribes of
- J. R. Swanton, Contributions to British Columbia, see my Totemistn
the Ethnology of the Haida (Leyden and Exogamy {London, 19 10), iii. pp.
and New York, 1905), pp. 156, i6os^., 501, 511 s^., 5155^., 519, 521, 526,
lio sq., 181 {The Jestip North Pacific 535 J^., 537, 539 ■<■?•, 542 sq., 544,
Expedition, Memoir of the American 545.
DIONYSUS
CHAP.
Later mis
interpreta-
tions of the
bleeding flesh, as though they were ravenous wolves
instead of men. Snakes also are thrown to them as tests
of their divine frenzy, and these share the fate of the goats.
Sometimes a luckless dog, straying as dogs will stray in
a tumult, is seized on. Then the laymen, should any
be at hand, will try to prevent the desecration of pious
mouths. But the fanatics sometimes prevail, and the
unclean animal, abhorred by the mussulman, is torn in
pieces and devoured, or pretended to be devoured, with
indiscriminating rage." ^
The custom of killing a god in animal form, which we
shall examine more in detail further on, belongs to a very
custom of early stage of human culture, and is apt in later times to be
god"in ^ misunderstood. The advance of thought tends to strip the
animal old animal and plant gods of their bestial and vegetable
husk, and to leave their human attributes (which are always
the kernel of the conception) as the final and sole residuum.
In other words, animal and plant gods tend to become
purely anthropomorphic. When they have become wholly
or nearly so, the animals and plants which were at first the
deities themselves, still retain a vague and ill-understood
connexion with the anthropomorphic gods who have been
developed out of them. The origin of the relationship
between the deity and the animal or plant having been
forgotten, various stories are invented to explain it. These
explanations may follow one of two lines according as they
are based on the habitual or on the exceptional treatment
of the sacred animal or plant. The sacred animal was
habitually spared, and only exceptionally slain ; and accord-
ingly the myth might be devised to explain either why it
was spared or why it was killed. Devised for the former
purpose, the myth would tell of some service rendered to the
deity by the animal ; devised for the latter purpose, the
myth would tell of some injury inflicted by the animal on
the god. The reason given for sacrificing goats to Dionysus
exemplifies a myth of the latter sort. They were sacri-
^ A. Leared, Morocco and the Moors
(London, 1876), pp. 267-269. Com-
pare Budgett Meakin, The Moors
(London, 1902), pp. 331 sq. The
same order of fanatics also exists
and holds similar orgies in Algeria,
especially at the town of Tlemcen.
See E. Doutte, Les Aissdoua a Tlemcen
(Chalons-sur-Marne, 1900), p. 13.
DIONYSUS
23
ficed to him, it was said, because they injured the vine.^
Now the goat, as we have seen, was originally an embodi-
ment of the god himself. But when the god had divested
himself of his animal character and had become essentially
anthropomorphic, the killing of the goat in his worship came
to be regarded no longer as a slaying of the deity himself,
but as a sacrifice offered to him ; and since some reason had
to be assigned why the goat in particular should be sacrificed,
it was alleged that this was a punishment inflicted on the
goat for injuring the vine, the object of the god's especial
care. Thus we have the strange spectacle of a god sacrificed
to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. And
as the deity is supposed to partake of the victim offered to
him, it follows that, when the victim is the god's old self, the
god eats of his own flesh. Hence the goat-god Dionysus is
represented as eating raw goat's blood ; " and the bull-god
Dionysus is called " eater of bulls." ^ On the analogy of
these instances we may conjecture that wherever a deity is
described as the eater of a particular animal, the animal in
question was originally nothing but the deity himself.*
Later on we shall find that some savages propitiate dead bears
and whales by offering them portions of their own bodies.^
All this, however, does not explain why a deity of Human
vegetation should appear in animal form. But the con- ;„ ^he
sideration of that point had better be deferred till we have worship of
Dionysus.
1 Varro, Rerum rusiicarum, i. 2. 19 ; aiyo(pdyos, Etymologicum Magnum, s.v.
Virgil, Georg. ii. 376-381, with the 0^70^070?, p. 27. 52 (compare Scholiast
comments of Servius on the passage on Oppianus, Halieitt. iii. 10 ; L.
and on Aen. iii. 118 ; Ovid, Fasti, i. Stephani, in Compte- Rendu de la Com-
353 -f^^.; id., Meta7iiorph.-&.v. 1145^.; mission Imperials Archeologiqtie pour
Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Com- Pantti^e jS6g (St. Petersburg, 1870),
pendium, 30. pp. 16-18) ; Apollo 6^o<pdyos at Elis,
'^ Euripides, Bacc/iae, I ;^8sq.:dyp€vij}i' Athenaeus, viii. 36, p. 346 b; Artemis
alfia TpayoKTdvov, tI)fjLO(pdyov x^'P'-"- Kairpocpdyos in Samos, Hesychius, s.v.
3 Schol. on Aristophanes, /Vis^T, 357. Kairpo(pdyo? ; compaie id., s. v. Kpio(pdyos.
* Hera aiyo<pdyos at Sparta, Pau- Divine titles derived from killing
sanias, iii. 15. 9; Hesychius, s.v. animals are probably to be similarly
aiyo4>dyos (compare the representation explained, as Dionysus aiyo^oXos (Pau-
of Hera clad in a goat's skin, with the sanias, ix. 8. 2) ; Rhea or Hecate
animal's head and horns over her head, Kvvoa(payr)s (J. Tzetzes, Scholia on
M\x\\er-\Nitse\tx, Denkmdler der alteii lycophron, 77); Apollo XvKOKTdvos
Kunst, i. No. 229 B ; and the similar (Sophocles, Electra, 6) ; Apollo cavpo-
representation of the Lanuvinian Juno, kt6vo! (Pliny, A^al. Hist, xxxiv. 70).
W. H. Roscher, Lexikon d. griech. u. ^ See below, vol. ii. pp. 184, 194,
rom. Mythologie, ii. 605 sqq.); Zeus 196, 19737., 233.
24
DIONYSUS
The
legendary
deaths of
Pentheus
and
Lycurgus
may be
remin-
iscences
of a custom
of sacrific-
ing divine
kings in
the char-
acter of
Dionysus.
discussed the character and attributes of Demeter. Mean-
time it remains to mention that in some places, instead of
an animal, a human being was torn in pieces at the rites of
Dionysus. This was the practice in Chios and Tenedos ; ^
and at Potniae in Boeotia the tradition ran that it had been
formerly the custom to sacrifice to the goat-smiting Dionysus
a child, for whom a goat was afterwards substituted.^ At
Orchomenus, as we have seen, the human victim was taken
from the women of an old royal family.^ As the slain bull
or goat represented the slain god, so, we may suppose, the
human victim also represented him.
The legends of the deaths of Pentheus and Lycurgus,
two kings who are said to have been torn to pieces, the one
by Bacchanals, the other by horses, for their opposition to
the rites of Dionysus, may be, as I have already suggested,*
distorted reminiscences of a custom of sacrificing divine
kings in the character of Dionysus and of dispersing the
fragments of their broken bodies over the fields for the
purpose of fertilising them. In regard to Lycurgus, king of
the Thracian tribe of the Edonians, it is expressly said that
his subjects at the bidding of an oracle caused him to be
rent in pieces by horses for the purpose of restoring the
fertility of the ground after a period of barrenness and
dearth.'^ There is no improbability in the tradition. We
have seen that in Africa and other parts of the world kings
or chiefs have often been put to death by their people for
similar reasons.^ Further, it is significant that King Lycurgus
is said to have slain his own son Dryas with an axe in a fit
of madness, mistaking him for a vine-branch.''^ Have we not
in this tradition a reminiscence of a custom of sacrificing the
king's son in place of the father ? Similarly Athamas, a
King of Thessaly or Boeotia, is said to have been doomed
by an oracle to be sacrificed at the altar in order to remove
the curse of barrenness which afflicted his country; however,
he contrived to evade the sentence and in a fit of madness
killed his own son Learchus, mistaking him for a wild beast.
^ Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 55.
^ Pausanias, ix. 8. 2.
3 See The Dying God, pp. 163 sq.
* Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second
Edition, pp. 332 sq.
" Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 5. I.
^ The Magic Art and the Evolution
of Kings, i. 344, 345, 346, 352, 354,
366 sq.
'' Apollodorus, ^/(5//<?///i?c«, iii. 5.1.
s
I DIONYSUS 25
That this legend was not a mere myth is made probable by
a custom observed at Alus down to historical times : the
eldest male scion of the royal house was regularly sacrificed
in due form to Laphystian Zeus if he ever set foot within
the town-hall.^ The close resemblance between the legends
of King Athamas and King Lycurgus furnishes a ground for
believing both legends to be based on a real custom of
sacrificing either the king himself or one of his sons for the
good of the country ; and the story that the king's son
Dryas perished because his frenzied father mistook him for
a vine-branch fits in well with the theory that the victim in
these sacrifices represented the vine-god Dionysus. It is
probably no mere coincidence that Dionysus himself is said
to have been torn in pieces at Thebes,^ the very place where
according to legend the same fate befell king Pentheus at
the hands of the frenzied votaries of the vine-god.^
The theory that in prehistoric times Greek and Thracian Survival of
kings or their sons may have been dismembered in the ^jtes
character of the vine-god or the corn-god for the purpose of among the
1 • 1 • • 1 r modern
fertilising the earth or quickenmg the vmes has received 01 Thradan
late years some confirmation from the discovery that down to peasantry.
the present time in Thrace, the original home of Dionysus,
a drama is still annually performed which reproduces with
remarkable fidelity some of the most striking traits in the
Dionysiac myth and ritual* In a former part of this work
I have already called attention to this interesting survival
of paganism among a Christian peasantry ; ^ but it seems
desirable and appropriate in this place to draw out somewhat
1 Herodotus, vii. 197; ApoUodorus, '' See Mr. R. M. Dawkins, "The
Bibliotheca, i. 9. i sq. ; Scholiast on Modern Carnival in Thrace and the
Aristophanes, Clouds, 257 ; J. Tzetzes, Cult oiDiowysns," Jounial of Hellenic
Schol. on Lycophron, 21; Hyginus, Studies, xxvi. (1906) pp. 191-206.
Fabtilae, 1-5. See The Dying God, pp. Mr. Dawkins describes the ceremonies
161-163. partly from his own observation, partly
9 ^, Ti n ■.■ from an account of them published by
^ Clemens Romanus, Kecos:nitiones, -^ /^utit- • r-^i
,,.,. , r> , , ■ % • Mr. G. M. Vizyenos in a Greek
X. 24 (Migne s Fatrolos^ia Graeca, 1. • j- 1 ^-w > 'n • c \ -^x.
, ] \ \ periodical QpaKiKri ETrerT/ptj, of which
^■^^'' only one number was published at
3 Euripides, Bacchae, 43 sqq., 1043 Athens in 1897. From his personal
sqq. ; Theocritus, Idyl. xxvi. ; Pausanias, observations Mr. Dawkins was able to
ii. 2. 7. Strictly speaking, the murder confirm the accuracy of Mr. Vizyenos s
of Pentheus is said to have been per- account.
petrated not at Thebes, of which he ^ Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second
was king, but on Mount Cithaeron. Edition, pp. 333 sq.
26
DIONYSUS
Drama
annually
performed
at the
Carnival
in the
villages
round
Viza,
an old
Thracian
capital.
The actors
in the
drama.
more fully the parallelism between the modern drama and
the ancient worship.
The drama, which may reasonably be regarded as a direct
descendant of the Dionysiac rites, is annually performed at
the Carnival in all the Christian villages which cluster round
Viza, the ancient Bizya, a town of Thrace situated about
midway between Adrianople and Constantinople. In anti-
quity the city was the capital of the Thracian tribe of the
Asti ; the kings had their palace there,^ probably in the
acropolis, of which some fine walls are still standing.
Inscriptions preserved in the modern town record the names
of some of these old kings.^ The date of the celebration is
Cheese Monday, as it is locally called, which is the Monday
of the last week of Carnival. At Viza itself the mummery
has been shorn of some of its ancient features, but these
have been kept up at the villages and have been particularly
observed and recorded at the village of St. George (Haghios
Gheorgios). It is to the drama as acted at that village that
the following description specially applies. The principal
parts in the drama are taken by two men disguised in
goatskins. Each of them wears a headdress made of a
complete goatskin, which is stuffed so as to rise a foot or
more like a shako over his head, while the skin falls over the
face, forming a mask with holes cut for the eyes and mouth.
Their shoulders are thickly padded with hay to protect them
from the blows which used to be rained very liberally on
their backs. Fawnskins on their shoulders and goatskins on
their legs are or used to be part of their equipment, and
another indispensable part of it is a number of sheep-bells
tied round their waists. One of the two skin-clad actors
carries a bow and the other a wooden effigy of the male
organ of generation. Both these actors must be married
men. According to Mr. Vizyenos, they are chosen for periods
of four years. Two unmarried boys dressed as girls and
sometimes called brides also take part in the play ; and a
man disguised as an old woman in rags carries a mock baby
in a basket ; the brat is supposed to be a seven-months'
child born out of wedlock and begotten by an unknown
1 Strabo, vii. frag. 48 ; Stephanus Byzantius, s.7<. Bij't'T?.
2 R. M. Dawkins, op. cit. p. 192.
I DIONYSUS 27
father. The basket in which the hopeful infant is paraded
bears the ancient name of the winnowing-fan {likni, con-
tracted from liknoi) and the babe itself receives the very
title " He of the Winnowing-fan " {Liknites) which in anti-
quity was applied to Dionysus. Two other actors, clad in
rags with blackened faces and armed with stout saplings,
play the parts of a gypsy-man and his wife ; others per-
sonate policemen armed with swords and whips ; and the
troupe is completed by a man who discourses music on a
bagpipe.
Such are the masqueraders. The morning of the day Thecere-
on which they perform their little drama is spent by them |^°,"'^gjfje
going from door to door collecting bread, eggs, or money, forging of
At every door the two skin-clad maskers knock, the boys shal-n"^"
disguised as girls dance, and the gypsy man and wife enact mock
an obscene pantomime on the straw-heap before the house. ^nTT^^'
When every house in the village has been thus visited, the pretence of
, . . , 1 r ^1 -11 death and
troop takes up position on the open space before the village resurrec-
church, where the whole population has already mustered to tion.
witness the performance. After a dance hand in hand, in
which all the actors take part, the two skin-clad maskers
withdraw aad leave the field to the gypsies, who now pretend
to forge a ploughshare, the man making believe to hammer
the share and his wife to work the bellows. At this point
the old woman's baby is supposed to grow up at a great
pace, to develop a huge appetite for meat and drink,
and to clamour for a wife. One of the skin-clad men
now pursues one of the two pretended brides, and a
mock marriage is celebrated between the couple. After
these nuptials have been performed with a parody of a real
wedding, the mock bridegroom is shot by his comrade with
the bow and falls down on his face like dead. His slayer
thereupon feigns to skin him with a knife ; but the dead
man's wife laments over her deceased husband with loud
cries, throwing herself across his prostrate body. In this
lamentation the slayer himself and all the other actors join
in : a Christian funeral service is burlesqued ; and the pre-
tended corpse is lifted up as if to be carried to the grave.
At this point, however, the dead man disconcerts the
preparations for his burial by suddenly coming to life
28
DIONYSUS
The cere-
monies also
include a
simulation
of plough-
ing and
sowing by
skin-clad
men, ac-
companied
by prayers
for good
crops.
Kindred
ceremony
performed
by a
masked
and skin-
clad man
who is
called a
king.
again and getting up. So ends the drama of death and
resurrection.
The next act opens with a repetition of the pretence of
forging a ploughshare, but this time the gypsy man hammers
on a real share. When the implement is supposed to have
been fashioned, a real plough is brought forward, the
mockery appears to cease, the two boys dressed as girls are
yoked to the plough and drag it twice round the village
square contrary to the way of the sun. One of the two
skin-clad men walks at the tail of the plough, the other
guides it in front, and a third man follows in the rear
scattering seed from a basket. After the two rounds have
been completed, the gypsy and his wife are yoked to the
plough, and drag it a third time round the square, the two
skin-clad men still playing the part of ploughmen. At Viza
the plough is drawn by the skin-clad men themselves. While
the plough is going its rounds, followed by the sower sowing
the seed, the people pray aloud, saying, " May wheat be ten
piastres the bushel ! Rye five piastres the bushel ! Amen,
O God, that the poor may eat ! Yea, O God, that poor folk
be filled ! " This ends the performance. The evening is
spent in feasting on the proceeds of the house-to-house
visitation which took place in the morning.^
A kindred festival is observed on the same day of the
Carnival at Kosti, a place in the extreme north of Thrace,
near the Black Sea. There a man dressed in sheepskins or
goatskins, with a mask on his face, bells round his neck, and
a broom in his hand, goes round the village collecting food
and presents. He is addressed as a king and escorted with
music. With him go boys dressed as girls, and another boy,
not so disguised, who carries wine in a wooden bottle and
gives of it to every householder to drink in a cup, receiving
a gift in return. The king then mounts a two-wheeled cart
and is drawn to the church. He carries seed in his hand,
and at the church two bands of men, one of married men
and the other of unmarried men, try each in turn to induce
the king to throw the seed on them. Finally he casts it on
the ground in front of the church. The ceremony ends with
1 R. M. Dawkins, "The Modern
Carnival in Thrace and the Cult of
V>\ox\y%ws,'''- Journal of Hellenic Studies,
xxvi. (1906) pp. 193-201.
I DIONYSUS 29
Stripping the king of his clothes and flinging him into the
river, after which he resumes his usual dress.^
In these ceremonies, still annually held at and near an Analogy
old capital of Thracian kings, the points of similarity to the °[o^ern
ritual of the ancient Thracian deity Dionysus are sufficiently Thracian
obvious.^ The goatskins in which the principal actors are toThe°"'^^
disguised remind us of the identification of Dionysus with a ancient
goat : the infant, cradled in a winnowing-fan and taking Dionysus.
its name from the implement, answers exactly to the
traditions and the monuments which represent the infant
Dionysus as similarly cradled and similarly named : the
pretence that the baby is a seven-months' child born out
of wedlock and begotten by an unknown father tallies
precisely with the legend that Dionysus was born prematurely
in the seventh month as the offspring of an intrigue between
a mortal woman and a mysterious divine father : ^ the same
coarse symbol of reproductive energy which characterised
the ancient ritual of Dionysus figures conspicuously in the
modern drama : the annual mock marriage of the goatskin-
clad mummer with the pretended bride may be compared
with the annual pretence of marrying Dionysus to the
Queen of Athens : and the simulated slaughter and resurrec-
tion of the same goatskin-clad actor may be compared with
the traditional slaughter and resurrection of the god himself.
Further, the ceremony of ploughing, in which after his
resurrection the goatskin-clad mummer takes a prominent
part, fits in well not only with the legend that Dionysus was
the first to yoke oxen to the plough, but also with the
symbolism of the winnowing-fan in his worship ; while the
prayers for plentiful crops which accompany the ploughing
accord with the omens of an abundant harvest which were
drawn of old from the mystic light seen to illumine by night
one of his ancient sanctuaries in Thrace. Lastly, in the
ceremony as observed at Kosti the giving of wine by the king's
1 R. M. Dawkins, op. cit. pp. connexion of the modern Thracian
201 sq. ceremonies with the ancient rites of
2 They have been clearly indicated Dionysus.
by Mr. R. M. Dawkins, op. cit. pp. ^ Lucian, Dialogi Deorum, ix. 2 ;
203 sqq. Compare W. Ridgeway, The Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 4. 4.
Origin of Tragedy (Cambridge, 1910), According to the latter writer Dionysus
pp. 15 sqq., who fully recognises the was born in the sixth month.
30
DIONYSUS
The
modern
Thracian
celebration
seems to
correspond
most
closely to
the ancient
Athenian
festival of
the An-
thesteria.
attendant is an act worthy of the wine-god : the throwing
of seed by the king can only be interpreted, like the plough-
ing, as a charm to promote the fertility of the ground ; and
the royal title borne by the principal masker harmonises
well with the theory that the part of the god of the corn and
the wine was of old sustained by the Thracian kings who
reigned at Bisya.
If we ask, To what ancient festival of Dionysus does the
modern celebration of the Carnival in Thrace most nearly
correspond ? the answer can be hardly doubtful. The
Thracian drama of the mock marriage of the goatskin-clad
mummer, his mimic death and resurrection, and his sub-
sequent ploughing, corresponds both in date and in character
most nearly to the Athenian festival of the Anthesteria,
which was celebrated at Athens during three days in early
spring, towards the end of February or the beginning of
March. Thus the date of the Anthesteria could not fall
far from, and it might sometimes actually coincide with, the
last week of the Carnival, the date of the Thracian cele-
bration. While the details of the festival of the Anthesteria
are obscure, its general character is well known. It was
a festival both of wine-drinking and of the dead, whose
souls were supposed to revisit the city and to go about the
streets, just as in modern Europe and in many other parts
of the world the ghosts of the departed are still believed to
return to their old homes on one day of the year and to be
entertained by their relatives at a solemn Feast of All
Souls.^ But the Dionysiac nature of the festival was
revealed not merely by the opening of the wine-vats and
the wassailing which went on throughout the city among
freemen and slaves alike ; on the second day of the festival
the marriage of Dionysus with the Queen of Athens was
celebrated with great solemnity at the Bucolium or Ox-stall.^
' As to such festivals of All Souls
see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second
Edition, pp. 301-318.
2 Tlie passages of ancient authors
which refer to the Anthesteria are
collected by Professor Martin P. Nilsson,
Studiade Dionysiis Atticis (l^vmd, 1 900),
pp. 1485-^^. As to the festival, which has
been much discussed of late years, see
August Mommsen, Heoi-tologie (Leipsic,
1864), pp. 345 sqq. ; id., Feste der
Stadt At hen im Altertum (Leipsic,
1898), pp. 384 ^■$'17.; G. F. Schoemann,
Griechische Alterthiimei-^ { Berlin, 1 902),
ii. 516 sqq. ; E. Rohde, Psyche'^
(Tubingen and Leipsic, 1903), i. 236
sqq. ; Martin P. Nilsson, op. cit. pp.
1 1 5 sqq. ; P. Foucart, Le Cidte de
DIONYSUS
31
It has been suggested with much probability ^ that at
this sacred marriage in the Ox-stall the god was repre-
sented wholly or partly in bovine shape, whether by an
image or by an actor dressed in the hide and wearing the
horns of a bull ; for, as we have seen, Dionysus was often
supposed to assume the form of a bull and to present himself
in that guise to his worshippers. If this conjecture should
prove to be correct — though a demonstration of it can
hardly be expected — the sacred marriage of the Queen to
the Bull-god at Athens would be parallel to the sacred
marriage of the Queen to the Bull-god at Cnossus,
according to the interpretation which I have suggested
of the myth of Pasiphae and the Minotaur ; ^ only
whereas the bull-god at Cnossus, if I am right, stood for the
Sun, the bull-god at Athens stood for the powers of vegeta-
tion, especially the corn and the vines. It would not be
surprising that among a cattle-breeding people in early days
the bull, regarded as a type of strength and reproductive
energy, should be employed to symbolise and represent more
than one of the great powers of nature. If Dionysus did
indeed figure as a bull at his marriage, it is not improbable
that on that occasion his representative, whether a real bull
or a man dressed in a bull's hide, took part in a ceremony
of ploughing ; for we have seen that the invention of yoking
oxen to the plough was ascribed to Dionysus, and we know
that the Athenians performed a sacred ceremony of plough-
ing, which went by the name of the Ox-yoked Ploughing
and took place in a field or other open piece of
ground at the foot of the Acropolis.^ It is a reasonable
conjecture that the field of the Ox-yoked Ploughing may
have adjoined the building called the Ox-stall in which the
marriage of Dionysus with the Queen was solemnised ; * for
Dionysos en Attiqiie (Paris, 1904), pp. Moellendorff, Aristoteles uiid Athen
107 sqq.; Miss J. E. Harrison, Pro- (Berlin, 1893), ii. 42; and afterwards
legomena to the Study of Greek Re- by Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena
ligion^ (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 32 sqq. ; to the Study of Greek Religion^ p. 536.
L. R. Farnell, Ihe Cults of the Greek ^ The Dying God, p. 71.
States, V. (Oxford, 1909) pp. 214 sqq. ^ Plutarch, Conjugalia Praecepta,
As to the marriage of Dionysus to the 42.
Queen of Athens, see The Magic Art * Miss J. E. Harrison, Mythology
and the Evolution of Kings, i, 12,6 sq. and Monuments of Ancient Athens
* By Professor U. von Wilamowitz- (London, 1890), pp. 166 sq.
32
DIONYSUS
'I'heory
that the
rites of the
Anthes-
teria
comprised
a drama
of the
violent
death and
resurrec-
tion of
Dionysus.
that building is known to have been near the Prytaneum or
Town-Hall on the northern slope of the Acropolis.^
Thus on the whole the ancient festival of the Anthesteria,
so far as its features are preserved by tradition or can be
restored by the use of reasonable conjecture, presents several
important analogies to the modern Thracian Carnival in
respect of wine-drinking, a mock marriage of disguised actors,
and a ceremony of ploughing. The resemblance between
the ancient and the modern ritual would be still closer if
some eminent modern scholars, who wrote before the dis-
covery of the Thracian Carnival, and whose judgment was
therefore not biassed by its analogy to the Athenian festival,
are right in holding that another important feature of the
Anthesteria was the dramatic death and resurrection of
Dionysus.^ They point out that at the marriage of Dionysus
fourteen Sacred Women officiated at fourteen altars ; ^ that
the number of the Titans, who tore Dionysus in pieces, was
fourteen, namely seven male and seven female ; ^ and that
Osiris, a god who in some respects corresponded closely
to Dionysus, is said to have been rent by Typhon into
fourteen fragments.^ Hence they conjecture that at Athens
the body of Dionysus was dramatically broken into fourteen
fragments, one for each of the fourteen altars, and that it
was afterwards dramatically pieced together and restored to
life by the fourteen Sacred Women, just as the broken body
of Osiris was pieced together by a company of gods and
goddesses and restored to life by his sister Isis.^ The con-
jecture is ingenious and plausible, but with our existing
sources of information it must remain a conjecture and
' Aristotle, Constitution of Athens,
3. As to the situation of the Prytaneum
see my note on Pausanias, i. 18. 3 (vol.
ii. p. 172).
2 August Mommsen, Heortologie,
pp. 371 sqq. ; id., Feste der Stadt
Athen im Altej-tum, pp. 398 sqq. ; P.
Foucart, Le Culte de Dionysos en
Attiqtie, pp. 138 sqq.
^ Demosthenes, Contra Neaer. 73,
pp. 1369 sq. ; Julius Pollux, viii. 108 ;
Etymologicum Magnwn, p. 227, s.v.
yepalpai ; Hesychius, s.v. yepapal.
* Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamns,
P- 505.
^ Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 18, 42.
® The resurrection of Osiris is not
described by Plutarch in his treatise
/sis et Osiris, which is still our principal
source for the myth of the god ; but
it is fortunately recorded in native
Egyptian writings. See Adonis, Attis,
Osiris, Second Edition, p. 274. P.
Foucart supposes that the resurrec-
tion of Dionysus was enacted at the
Anthesteria ; August Mommsen pre-
fers to suppose that it was enacted
in the following month at the Lesser
Mysteries.
T DIONYSUS 33
nothing more. Could it be established, it would forge
another strong link in the chain of evidence which binds
the modern Thracian Carnival to the ancient Athenian
Anthesteria ; for in that case the drama of the divine death
and resurrection would have to be added to the other
features which these two festivals of spring possess in common,
and we should have to confess that Greece had what we
may call its Good Friday and its Easter Sunday long before
the events took place in Judaea which diffused these two
annual commemorations of the Dying and Reviving God
over a great part of the civilised world. From so simple a
beginning may flow consequences so far-reaching and im-
pressive ; for in the light of the rude Thracian ceremony
we may surmise that the high tragedy of the death and
resurrection of Dion}'sus originated in a rustic mummers'
play acted by ploughmen for the purpose of fertilising the
brown earth which they turned up with the gleaming share
in sunshiny days of spring, as they followed the slow-paced
oxen down the long furrows in the fallow field. Later on
we shall see that a play of the same sort is still acted, or
was acted down to recent years, by English yokels on
Plough Monday.
But before we pass from the tragic myth and ritual of Legends of
Dionysus to the sweeter story and milder worship of Demeter sacrifice in
and Persephone, the true Greek deities of the corn, it is fair the wor-
to admit that the legends of human sacrifice, which have Dionysus
left so dark a stain on the memory of the old Thracian god, ™^y ^^.
•^ . . 7 mere mis-
may have been nothing more than mere misinterpretations interpreta-
of a sacrificial ritual in which an animal victim was treated t'onsof
ritual.
as a human being. For example, at Tenedos the new-born
calf sacrificed to Dionysus was shod in buskins, and the
mother cow was tended like a woman in child-bed.^ At
Rome a she-goat was sacrificed to Vedijovis as if it were a
human victim.' Yet on the other hand it is equally possible,
and perhaps more probable, that these curious rites were
themselves mitigations of an older and ruder custom of
sacrificing human beings, and that the later pretence of
1 Aelian, De A^atnra Aninialiiim , 1894), pp. 300 sqq.
xii. 34. Compare W. Robertson Smith,
Religion of the Semites- (London, ^ Aulus Gellius, v. 12. 12.
PI". V. VOL. I D
34 DIONYSUS chap, i
treating the sacrificial victims as if they were human beings
was merely part of a pious and merciful fraud, which
palmed off on the deity less precious victims than living
men and women. This interpretation is supported by the
undoubted cases in which animals have been substituted
for human victims.^ On the whole we may conclude that
neither the polished manners of a later age, nor the glamour
which Greek poetry and art threw over the figure of
Dionysus, sufficed to conceal or erase the deep lines of
savagery and cruelty imprinted on the features of this
barbarous deity.
^ See The Dying God, p. i66 note ', and below, p. 249.
CHAPTER II
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Dionysus was not the only Greek deity whose tragic story Demeter
and ritual appear to reflect the decay and revival of vesfeta- ^"'^^p^''-
'■ '■ ■' o sephone
tion. In another form and with a different application the as Greek
old tale reappears in the myth of Demeter and Persephone. ficltioHs of
Substantially their myth is identical with the Syrian one of the decay
Aphrodite (Astarte) and Adonis, the Phrygian one of Cybele of vegTta-^
and Attis, and the Egyptian one of Isis and Osiris. In the t'o°-
Greek fable, as in its Asiatic and Egyptian counterparts, a
goddess mourns the loss of a loved one, who personifies the
vegetation, more especially the corn, which dies in winter to
revive in spring ; only whereas the Oriental imagination
figured the loved and lost one as a dead lover or a dead
husband lamented by his leman or his wife, Greek fancy
embodied the same idea in the tenderer and purer form of a
dead daughter bewailed by her sorrowing mother.
The oldest literary document which narrates the myth The
of Demeter and Persephone is the beautiful Homeric Hymn ^°™^"^
to Demeter, which critics assign to the seventh century before Demeter.
our era.^ The object of the poem is to explain the origin of
the Eleusinian mysteries, and the complete silence of the
poet as to Athens and the Athenians, who in after ages
took a conspicuous part in the festival, renders it probable
that the hymn was composed in the far off time when
Eleusis was still a petty independent state, and before the
stately procession of the Mysteries had begun to defile, in
1 R. Foerster, Der Ratib und die A later date— the age of the Pisistra-
Riickkehr der Persopkoiie (Stuttgart, tids — is assigned to the hymn by A.
1S74), pp. 37-39; The Homeric Bnumeistei {Ifj'mni //o/nerici, heipsic.
Hymns, edited by T. W. Allen and i860, p. 280).
E. E. Sikes (London, 1904), pp. 10 sq.
35
36
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
The rape
of Per-
sephone.
The
wrath of
Demeter.
bright September days, over the low chain of barren rocky
hills which divides the flat Eleusinian corn land from the
more spacious olive-clad expanse of the Athenian plain. Be
that as it may, the hymn reveals to us the conception which
the writer entertained of the character and functions of the
two goddesses : their natural shapes stand out sharply enough
under the thin veil of poetical imagery. The youthful
Persephone, so runs the tale, was gathering roses and lilies,
crocuses and violets, hyacinths and narcissuses in a lush
meadow, when the earth gaped and Pluto, lord of the Dead,
issuing from the abyss carried her off on his golden car to
be his bride and queen in the gloomy subterranean world.
Her sorrowing mother Demeter, with her yellow tresses
veiled in a dark mourning mantle, sought her over land and
sea, and learning from the Sun her daughter's fate she
withdrew in high dudgeon from the gods and took up her
abode at Eleusis, where she presented herself to the king's
daughters in the guise of an old woman, sitting sadly under
the shadow of an olive tree beside the Maiden's Well, to
which the damsels had come to draw water in bronze pitchers
for their father's house. In her wrath at her bereavement
the goddess suffered not the seed to grow in the earth but kept
it hidden under ground, and she vowed that never would she
set foot on Olympus and never would she let the corn sprout
till her lost daughter should be restored to her. Vainly the
oxen dragged the ploughs to and fro in the fields ; vainly
the sower dropped the barley seed in the brown furrows ;
nothing came up from the parched and crumbling soil.
Even the Rarian plain near Eleusis, which was wont to
wave with yellow harvests, lay bare and fallow.^ Mankind
would have perished of hunger and the gods would have
been robbed of the sacrifices which were their due, if Zeus
in alarm had not commanded Pluto to disgorge his prey, to
restore his bride Persephone to her mother Demeter. The
grim lord of the Dead smiled and obeyed, but before he
sent back his queen to the upper air on a golden car, he
gave her the seed of a pomegranate to eat, which ensured
that she would return to him. But Zeus stipulated that
henceforth Persephone should spend two thirds of every
1 Hynui to Demeter, I sqq., 302 sqq., 330 sqq., 349 sqq., 414 sqq., 450 sqq.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 37
year with her mother and the gods in the upper world and
one third of the year with her husband in the nether world,
from which she was to return year by year when the earth
was gay with spring flowers. Gladly the daughter then The return
returned to the sunshine, gladly her mother received her and sephone
fell upon her neck ; and in her joy at recovering the lost
one Demeter made the corn to sprout from the clods of the
ploughed fields and all the broad earth to be heavy with
leaves and blossoms. And straightway she went and
shewed this happy sight to the princes of Eleusis, to
Triptolemus, Eumolpus, Diodes, and to the king Celeus
himself, and moreover she revealed to them her sacred rites
and mysteries. Blessed, says the poet, is the mortal man
who has seen these things, but he who has had no share of
them in life will never be happy in death when he has
descended into the darkness of the grave. So the two
goddesses departed to dwell in bliss with the gods on
Olympus ; and the bard ends the hymn with a pious prayer
to Demeter and Persephone that they would be pleased to
grant him a livelihood in return for his song.^
It has been generally recognised, and indeed it seems The aim
scarcely open to doubt, that the main theme which the poet Homeric
set before himself in composing this hymn was to describe Hymn to
the traditional foundation of the Eleusinian mysteries by the jg to ex-
goddess Demeter. The whole poem leads up to the trans- pi^^'" ^he
t 1 1 1 1 n f 1 traditional
formation scene in which the bare leafless expanse of the foundation
Eleusinian plain is suddenly turned, at the will 6f the °^/'^'^. .
^ ■' ' Eleusinian
goddess, into a vast sheet of ruddy corn ; the beneficent mysteries
deity takes the princes of Eleusis, shews them what she has ^^^^^^^^
done, teaches them her mystic rites, and vanishes with her
daughter to heaven. The revelation of the mysteries is the
triumphal close of the piece. This conclusion is confirmed
by a more minute examination of the poem, which proves
that the poet has given, not merely a general account of the
foundation of the mysteries, but also in more or less veiled
language mythical explanations of the origin of particular
rites which we have good reason to believe formed essential
^ Hymn to Demeter, ^losgi/. ^Vith of Apollodorus {Bibliotheca, i. 5) and
the myth as set forth in the Homeric Ovid {Fasti, iv. 425-618; Metamor-
hymn maybe compared the accounts phoses, v. 385 sqq.).
38
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
features of the festival. Amongst the rites as to which the
poet thus drops significant hints are the preHminary fast of
the candidates for initiation, the torchlight procession, the
all-night vigil, the sitting of the candidates, veiled and in
silence, on stools covered with sheepskins, the use of scurrilous
language, the breaking of ribald jests, and the solemn com-
munion with the divinity by participation in a draught of
barley-water from a holy chalice.'^
Revelation But there is yet another and a deeper secret of the
°^rVf^coni mysteries which the author of the poem appears to have
the crown- divulged uudcr cover of his narrative. He tells us how, as
soon as she had transformed the barren brown expanse of the
Eleusinian plain into a field of golden grain, she gladdened
the eyes of Triptolemus and the other Eleusinian princes by
shewing them the growing or standing corn. When we
compare this part of the story with the statement of a
Christian writer of the second century, Hippolytus, that the
very heart of the mysteries consisted in shewing to the
initiated a reaped ear of corn,^ we can hardly doubt that
ing act
of the
mysteries
1 Hyimi to Denieter, 47-50, 191-
211, 292-295, with the notes of
Messrs. Allen and Sikes in their edi-
tion of the Homeric Hymns (London,
1904). As to representations of the
candidates for initiation seated on stools
draped with sheepskins, see L. R.
Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States,
iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp. 237 sqq., with
plate xv(?. On a well-known marble
vase there figured the stool is covered
with a lion's skin and one of the candi-
date's feet rests on a ram's skull or horns;
but in two other examples of the same
scene the ram's fleece is placed on the
seat (Farnell, op. cit. p. 240 note ^),
just as it is said to have been placed
on Demeter's stool in the Honjeric
hymn. As to the form of communion
in the Eleusinian mysteries, see
Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. 21,
p. 18 ed. Potter ; Arnobius, Adversus
nationes, v. 26 ; L. R. Farnell, op. cit.
iii. 185 sq., 195 sq. For discussions
of the ancient evidence bearing on the
Eleusinian mysteries it may suffice to
refer to Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophajmts
(Konigsberg, 1829), pp. 3 sqq. ; G. F.
Schoemann, Griechische Alterthumer,'^
ii. 387 sqq. ; Aug. Mommsen, Heorto-
logie (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 222 sqq. ;
id., Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertuni
(Leipsic, 1898), pp. 204 sqq.; P.
Foucart, Recherches sur POrigine et
la Nature des Mystires d' Eleusis
(Paris, 1895) {M^moires de VAcadimie
des Inscriptions, xxxv. ) ; id. , Les
grands My s teres d^ Eleusis (Paris,
1900) {Memoires de VAcadimie des
Itiscriptiotis, xxxvii.) ; F. Lenormant
and E. Pottier, s.v. " Eleusinia," in
Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire
des Antiquitis Grecques et Romaines,
ii. 544 sqq. ; L. R. Farnell, The Cults
of the Greek States, iii. 126 sqq.
2 Hippolytus, Refutatio Omnium
Haeresiu/n, v. 8, p. 162, ed. L.
Duncker et F. G. Schneidewin (Got-
tingen, 1859). The word which the
poet uses to express the revelation
(Sei^e, Hymn to Detneter, verse 474) is
a technical one in the mysteries ; the
full phrase was SeLKviivai to. lepd. See
Plutarch, Akibiades, 22 ; Xenophon,
Hellenica, vi. 3. 6 ; Isocrates, Pane-
gyriais, 6 ; Lysias, Contra Andocidem,
51 ; Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus,
P- 51-
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 39
the poet of the hymn was well acquainted with this solemn
rite, and that he deliberately intended to explain its origin
in precisely the same way as he explained other rites of the
mysteries, namely by representing Demeter as having set
the example of performing the ceremony in her own person.
Thus myth and ritual mutually explain and confirm each
other. The poet of the seventh century before our era
gives us the myth — he could not without sacrilege have
revealed the ritual : the Christian father reveals the ritual,
and his revelation accords perfectly with the veiled hint of
the old poet. On the whole, then, we may, with many
modern scholars, confidently accept the statement of the
learned Christian father Clement of Alexandria, that the
myth of Demeter and Persephone was acted as a sacred
drama in the mysteries of Eleusis/
But if the myth was acted as a part, perhaps as Demeter
the principal part, of the most famous and solemn religious ^nd Per-
r r r 1 o sephone
rites of ancient Greece, we have still to enquire. What personi-
was, after all, stripped of later accretions, the original
kernel of the myth which appears to later ages surrounded
and transfigured by an aureole of awe and mystery, lit up
by some of the most brilliant rays of Grecian literature and
art ? If we follow the indications given by our oldest
literary authority on the subject, the author of the Homeric
hymn to Demeter, the riddle is not hard to read ; the figures
of the two goddesses, the mother and the daughter, resolve
themselves into personifications of the corn.^ At least this
appears to be fairly certain for the daughter Persephone.
1 Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. hgie, i. 793) ; P. Foucart {Recherches
ii. 12, p. 12 ed. Potter: At/iI) 5^ koL sur POrigitte et la Nature des Mystires
Kdprj dpa/xa ijdt] iyeveadr)v fivariKof Kal d'Eleusis, Paris, 1895, pp. 43 sqq. ;
TT^v irXdvrjv Kal Tr}v apwayy^v Kal t6 TT^vdos id., Les Grands Mystires d'Eleusis,
avTotv 'EXeuffis 5q.5ovxi1. Compare Paris, 1900, p. 137); E. Rohde
F. Lenormant, s.v. " Eleusinia," in [Psyche,^ i. 289) ; and L. R. Farnell
Daremberg et Sa;^lio, Dictionnaire {The Cults of the Greek States, \\\. 134,
des Antiqtiites Grecques et Romaines, 173 ^<ll\
iii. 578 : " Que le drame mystique des
aventures de Dimiter et de Cori con- ^ On Demeter and Proserpine as
stitu&t le spectacle essentiel de Vinitia- goddesses of the corn, see L. Preller,
tion, c'est ce dont il nous semble im- Demeter und Persephone (Hamburg,
possible de douter." A similar view 1837), pp. 315 sqq. ; and especially
is expressed by G. F. Schoemann W. Mannhardt, Mythologische For-
(Griechische Altertkuvier,^ ii. 402); schungen (Strasburg, 1884), pp. 202
Preller -Robert (Griechische Mytho- sqq.
fications of
the corn.
40
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
Per-
sephone
the seed
sown in
autumn
and
sprouting
in spring.
Demeter
the old
corn of
last year.
The view
that
Demeter
was the
Earth
goddess is
implicitly
rejected by
the author
of the
Homeric
Hymn to
Demeter.
The goddess who spends three or, according to another
version of the myth, six months of every year with the
dead under ground and the remainder of the year with the
Hving above ground ; ^ in whose absence the barley seed is
hidden in the earth and the fields lie bare and fallow ; on
whose return in spring to the upper world the corn shoots
up from the clods and the earth is heavy with leaves and
blossoms — this goddess can surely be nothing else than a
mythical embodiment of the vegetation, and particularly of
the corn, which is buried under the soil for some months of
every winter and comes to life again, as from the grave, in
the sprouting cornstalks and the opening flowers and foliage
of every spring. No other reasonable and probable ex-
planation of Persephone seems possible." And if the
daughter goddess was a personification of the young corn
of the present year, may not the mother goddess be a
personification of the old corn of last year, which has given
birth to the new crops ? The only alternative to this view
of Demeter would seem to be to suppose that she is a
personification of the earth, from whose broad bosom the
corn and all other plants spring up, and of which accordingly
they may appropriately enough be regarded as the daughters.
This view of the original nature of Demeter has indeed been
taken by some writers, both ancient and modern,^ and it is
1 According to the author of the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter (verses
398 sqq., 445 sqq.) and Apollodorus
(Bibliot/ieca, i. 5. 3) the time which
Persephone had to spend under ground
was one third of the year ; according
to Ovid (Fasti, iv. 613 sq. ; Meta-
viorphoses, v. 564 sqq.) and Hyginus
{Fabtilae, 146) it was one half.
^ This view of the myth of Perse-
phone is, for example, accepted and
clearly stated by L. Preller [Demeter
7ind Pet-sephone, pp. 128 sq.).
^ See, for example, Firmicus Mater-
nus, De errore profanarnm religiomnn,
17.3: " Frugum substantiam vohmt
Proserpinam dicere, quia fruges
hominibus cum seri coeperint prostait.
Terram ipsam Ccrerem iiomitiant,
nomenhocagerendisfructibusmutiiati":
L. Preller, Deineter tind Persephone,
p. 1 28, -^ Der ErdbodeJt 7iiiyd Deiueter,
die Vegetation Persephone.'''' Francois
Lenormant, again, held that Demeter
was originally a personification of the
earth regarded as divine, but he
admitted that from the time of the
Homeric poems downwards she was
sharply distinguished from Ge, the
earth-goddess proper. See Daremberg
et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquites
Grecqties et Romaines, s.v. "Ceres,"
ii. 1022 sq. Some light might be
thrown on the question whether
Demeter was an Earth Goddess or a
Corn Goddess, if we could be sure of
the etymology of her name, which has
been variously explained as " Earth
Mother " (A'^ P-'hT'np equivalent to Vt\
fj.-qTrip) and as " Barley Mother" (from
an alleged Cretan word briai " barley ":
see Etymologicum Mag7titm, s.v. Ar]ib,
pp. 263 sq. ). The former etymology
has been the most popular ; the latter
s
n DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 41
one which can be reasonably maintained. But it appears
to have been rejected by the author of the Homeric hymn
to Demeter, for he not only distinguishes Demeter from the
personified Earth but places the two in the sharpest opposi-
tion to each other. He tells us that it was Earth who, in
accordance with the will of Zeus and to please Pluto, lured
Persephone to her doom by causing the narcissuses to grow
which tempted the young goddess to stray far beyond the
reach of help in the lush meadow.^ Thus Demeter of the
hymn, far from being identical with the Earth-goddess, must
have regarded that divinity as her worst enemy, since it
was to her insidious wiles that she owed the loss of her
daughter. But if the Demeter of the hymn cannot have
been a personification of the earth, the only alternative
apparently is to conclude that she was a personification of
the corn.
With this conclusion all the indications of the hymn- The Yellow
writer seem to harmonise. He certainly represents Demeter ^^™'^'""'
as the goddess by whose power and at whose pleasure dess who
the corn either grows or remains hidden in the ground ; thg^jpg
and to what deity can such powers be so fittingly ascribed grain from
as to the goddess of the corn ? He calls Demeter yellow at^the^
and tells how her yellow tresses flowed down on her threshing-
shoulders ; ^ could any colour be more appropriate with
which to paint the divinity of the yellow grain ? The same
identification of Demeter with the ripe, the yellow corn is
made even more clearly by a still older poet. Homer
himself, or at all events the author of the fifth book of the
Iliad. There we read : " And even as the wind carries the
chaff about the sacred threshing-floors, when men are
is maintained by W. Mannhardt. See no satisfactory derivation of the first
L. Preller, Demeter und Persephone, syllable of Demeter's name has yet
PP- 3^7) 366 sqq. ; F. G. Welcker, been proposed. Accordingly I prefer
Griechische Gotlerlehre, i. 385 sqq. ; to base no argument on an analysis of
Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie, the name, and to rest my interpretation
i. 747 note ^ ; Kern, in Pauly-Wissowa's of the goddess entirely on her myth,
Real-Encyclopddie derclassischen Alter- ritual, and representations in art.
tumswissenschaft, iv. 2713; W. Mann- Etymology is at the best a very slippery
hardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. ground on which to rear mythological
281 sqq. But my learned friend the theories.
Rev. Professor T. H. Moulton informs 1 r^- < 7-1 / c „
,,,-',. '■ Hymn to Demeter, b sqq. .
me that both etymologies are open to
serious philological objections, and that ^ Hymn to Demeter, 279, 302.
42 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
winnowing, what time yellow Demeter sifts the corn from
the chaff on the hurrying blast, so that the heaps of chaff
grow white below, so were the Achaeans whitened above by
the cloud of dust which the hoofs of the horses spurned to
the brazen heaven." ^ Here the yellow Demeter who sifts
the grain from the chaff at the threshing-floor can hardly be
any other than the goddess of the yellow corn ; she cannot
be the Earth-goddess, for what has the Earth-goddess to do
with the grain and the chaff blown about a threshing-floor ?
With this interpretation it agrees that elsewhere Homer
speaks of men eating " Demeter's corn " ; " and still more
definitely Hesiod speaks of " the annual store of food, which
the earth bears, Demeter's corn," ^ thus distinguishing the
goddess of the corn from the earth which bears it. Still
more clearly does a later Greek poet personify the corn as
Demeter when, in allusion to the time of the corn-reaping,
he says that then " the sturdy swains cleave Demeter limb
The Green from limb." ^ And just as the ripe or yellow corn was
Demeter personified as the Yellow Demeter, so the unripe or green
dessofthe com was personified as the Green Demeter. In that
gieencorn. character the goddess had sanctuaries at Athens and other
places ; sacrifices were appropriately offered to Green
Demeter in spring when the earth was growing green with
the fresh vegetation, and the victims included sows big
with young,^ which no doubt were intended not merely to
symbolise but magically to promote the abundance of the
crops.
The cereals In Greek the various kinds of corn were called by the
"Demeter's general name of " Demeter's fruits," ^ just as in Latin they
fruits." were called the " fruits or gifts of Ceres," "^ an expression
1 Homer, Iliad, v. 499.504. The Cults of the Greek States, iii.
2 Iliad, xiii. 322, xxi. 76. 312 sq.
3 Hesiod, Works and Days, 31 sq. ^ Herodotus, i. 193, iv. 198;
^ Quoted by Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, Xenophon, Helknica, vi. 3. 6 ; Aelian,
66. Historia Anifiialiitm, xvii. 16; Cor-
^ Pausanias, i. 22. 3 with my note ; nutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium,
Dittenberger, Sylloge Insn-iptionum 28 ; Geoponica, i. 12. 36 ; Paroemio-
Graecartan,'^ No. 615 ; J. de Prott et graphi Graeci, ed. Leutsch et Schnei-
L. Ziehen, Leges G}-aecorum Sacrae, dewin, Appendix iv. 20 (vol. i. p. 439).
Fasciculus I. (Leipsic, 1896) p. 49 ; ^ Cerealia in Pliny, Nat. Hist.
Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Com- xxiii. i ; Cerealia munera and Cerealia
pendium, 28 ; Scholiast on Sophocles, dona in Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi.
Oedipus Colon. 1600 ; L. R. Farnell, 121 sq.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 43
which survives in the English word cereals. Tradition ran
that before Demeter's time men neither cultivated corn nor
tilled the ground, but roamed the mountains and woods in
search of the wild fruits which the earth produced spon-
taneously from her womb for their subsistence. The
tradition clearly implies not only that Demeter was the
goddess of the corn, but that she was different from and
younger than the goddess of the Earth, since it is expressly
affirmed that before Demeter's time the earth existed and
supplied mankind with nourishment in the shape of wild
herbs, grasses, flowers and fruits.^
In ancient art Demeter and Persephone are characterised Corn and
as goddesses of the corn by the crowns of corn which they p"pp'^s ^\
o ■' •' symbols of
wear on their heads and by the stalks of corn which they Demeter.
hold in their hands.^ Theocritus describes a smiling image
of Demeter standing by a heap of yellow grain on a
threshing-floor and grasping sheaves of barley and poppies in
both her hands.^ Indeed corn and poppies singly or together
were a frequent symbol of the goddess, as we learn not only
from the testimony of ancient writers* but from many existing
monuments of classical art.'' The naturalness of the symbol
^ Libanius, ed. J. J. Reiske, vol. iv. vi. 104. 8 ; W. Mannhardt, Mytholo-
p. 367, Corinth. Oratio : Ovk a!>6is gische Forschiingen, p. 235 ; J. Over-
T\}t.Q>v &Kapiros 17 yij SoKel yeyovivai ; beck, Griechische Kiaistmythologie,
o\i TrdXtv 6 irpb Ari/j.7]Tpos eli'ai /3tos ; iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1878) pp. 420,
KaL Toi Kol irp6 ATj^Tjrpos al yewpylai 42 1, 453, 479) 4S0, 502, 505, 507,
H.kv ovK ^crav ■ ovoi dporoi, avrixpvToi 514, 522, 523, 524, 525 sq. • L. R.
5^ /Sordcat Kal iroai • Kal ttoWo, flx^'' Farnell, TAe Cults of the Greek Stales,
els ffCxiT-qpiav avdpihwwv avrocrx^Sia 8.vdrj iii. 217 sqq., 220 sq., 222, 226, 232,
i) yri iiBLvovaa Kal Kvovaa irpb rdv 233, 237, 260, 265, 268, 269 sq.,
riidpwv TO, dypia. 'EirXavQvTO p.ti>, 271.
dW OVK eir' dWrjXovs ■ dXtrij Kal 6prj ^ Theocritus, Idyl. vii. 155 sqq.
TTcpLrfaav, ^TjTovvTes avrd/iaTov Tpo<pr]v. That the sheaves which the goddess
In this passage, which no doubt repre- grasped were of barley is proved by
sents the common Greek view on the verses 31-34 of the poem,
subject, the earth is plainly personified * Eusebius, Praeparatio Evaugelii,
[ihSivovaa Kal Kvovcra), which points the iii. n. 5 ! Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae
antithesis between her and the goddess Compendium, 28, p. 56, ed. C. Lang ;
of the corn. Diodorus Siculus also Virgil, Georg. i. 212, with the com-
says (v. 68) that corn grew wild with ment of Servius.
the other plants before Demeter taught ^ See the references to the works of
men to cultivate it and to sow the Overbeck and Farnell above. For ex-
seed, ample, a fine statue at Copenhagen, in
2 Ovid, Fasti, iv. 616; Eusebius, the style of the age of Phidias, repre-
Praeparatio Evaugelii, iii. 11. 5; sents Demeter holding poppies and ears
Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Com- of corn in her left hand. See Farnell,
pendium, 28; A7ithologia Palatina, op. cit. iii. 268, with plate xxviii.
44
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Per-
sephone
portraj'ed
as the
young corn
sprouting
from the
ground.
can be doubted by no one who has seen — and who has not
seen ? — a field of yellow corn bespangled thick with scarlet
poppies ; and we need not resort to the shifts of an ancient
mythologist, who explained the symbolism of the poppy in
Demeter's hand by comparing the globular shape of the
poppy to the roundness of our globe, the unevenness of its
edges to hills and valleys, and the hollow interior of the
scarlet flower to the caves and dens of the earth.^ If only
students would study the little black and white books of
men less and the great rainbow-tinted book of nature more ;
if they would more frequently exchange the heavy air and
the dim light of libraries for the freshness and the sunshine
of the open sky ; if they would oftener unbend their minds
by rural walks between fields of waving corn, beside rivers
rippling by under grey willows, or down green lanes, where
the hedges are white with the hawthorn bloom or red with
wild roses, they might sometimes learn more about primitive
religion than can be gathered from many dusty volumes, in
which wire-drawn theories are set forth with all the tedious
parade of learning.
Nowhere, perhaps, in the monuments of Greek art is the
character of Persephone as a personification of the young
corn sprouting in spring portrayed more gracefully and more
truly than on a coin of Lampsacus of the fourth century
before our era. On it we see the goddess in the very act
of rising from the earth. " Her face is upraised ; in her
hand are three ears of corn, and others together with grapes
are springing behind her shoulder. Complete is here the
identification of the goddess and her attribute : she is
embowered amid the ears of growing corn, and like it half
buried in the ground. She does not make the corn and
vine grow, but she is the corn and vine growing, and
returning again to the face of the earth after lying hidden in
its depths. Certainly the artist who designed this beautiful
figure thoroughly understood Hellenic religion." "
As the goddess who first bestowed corn on mankind
and taught them to sow and cultivate it,^ Demeter was
' Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Com-
pendium, 28, p. 56 ed. C. Lang.
- Percy Gardner, Types of Greek
C(7?« J' (Cambridge, 1883), p. 174, with
plate X. No. 25.
^ Diodorus Siculus, v. 68. i.
sowing.
11 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 45
naturally invoked and propitiated by farmers before they oemeter
undertook the various operations of the agricultural year, '"voked
In autumn, when he heard the sonorous trumpeting of the pitiate^by
cranes, as they winged their way southward in vast flocks p'"^^'^
high overhead, the Greek husbandman knew that the rains before the
were near and that the time of ploughing was at hand ; but ^"'""^"'''^
before he put his hand to the plough he prayed to Under-
ground Zeus and to Holy Demeter for a heavy crop of
Demeter's sacred corn. Then he guided the ox-drawn
plough down the field, turning up the brown earth with the
share, while a swain followed close behind with a hoe, who
covered up the seed as fast as it fell to protect it from the
voracious birds that fluttered and twittered at the plough-
tail.^ But while the ordinary Greek farmer took the signal
for ploughing from the clangour of the cranes, Hesiod and
other writers who aimed at greater exactness laid it down
as a rule that the ploughing should begin with the autumnal
setting of the Pleiades in the morning, which in Hesiod's
time fell on the twenty-sixth of October.^ The month
in which the Pleiades set in the morning was generally
recognised by the Greeks as the month of sowing ; it
corresponded apparently in part to our October, in part to
1 Hesiod, Works and Days, 44S- 1896), pp. iioj^.
474 ; Epictetus, Dissertationes, iii.
21. 12. For the autumnal migration ^ Hesiod, Works ami Days, 3833-^.,
and clangour of the cranes as the 6 1 5-6 17 ; Aratus, Phaenomena, 254-
signal for sowing, see Aristophanes, 267 ; L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathe-
Birds, 711; compare Theognis, 1197 ma(ische7i titid technischen Chi-onologie
sqq. But the Greeks also ploughed in (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 241 sq. Kc-
spring (Hesiod, £7/. rzV. 462; Xenophon, cording to Pliny {Nat. Hist, xviii. 49)
Oecotiom. 16) ; indeed they ploughed wheat, barley, and all other cereals
thrice in the year (Theophrastus, were sown in Greece and Asia from
Historia Piantarum, vii. 13. 6). At the time of the autumn setting of the
the approach of autumn the cranes of Pleiades. This date for ploughing
northern Europe collect about rivers and sowing is confirmed by Hippo-
and lakes, and after much trumpeting crates and other medical writers. See
set out in enormous bands on their W. Smith's Dictionary of Greek ana
southward journey to the tropical Roman Antiquities,'^ i. 234. Latin
regions of Africa and India. In early writers prescribe the same date for the
spring they return northward, and sowing of wheat. See Virgil, Georg.
their flocks may be descried passing at i. 2.\()-2.i(> ; Columella, De re rustica,
a marvellous heiglit overhead or halting ii. 8 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii. 223-226.
to rest in the meadows beside some In Columella's time the Pleiades, he
broad river. The bird emits its tells us (I.e.), set in the morning of
trumpet-like note both on the ground October 24th of the Julian calendar,
and on the wing. See Alfred Newton, which would correspond to the October
Dictionary of Birds (London, 1893- 1 6th of our reckoning.
46
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Boeotian
festival of
mourning
for the
descent
of Per-
sephone
at the
autumnal
sowing.
Thank-
offerings of
ripe grain
presented
by Greek
farmers to
Demeter
after the
liarvest.
Theo-
critus's
our November. The Athenians called it Pyanepsion ; the
Boeotians named it significantly Damatrius, that is,
Demeter's month, and they celebrated a feast of mourning
because, says Plutarch, who as a Boeotian speaks with
authority on such a matter, Demeter was then in mourning
for the descent of Persephone.^ Is it possible to express
more clearly the true original nature of Persephone as the
corn-seed which has just been buried in the earth ? The
obvious, the almost inevitable conclusion did not escape
Plutarch, He tells us that the mournful rites which were
held at the time of the autumn sowing nominally com-
memorated the actions of deities, but that the real sadness
was for the fruits of the earth, some of which at that season
dropped of themselves and vanished from the trees, while
others in the shape of seed were committed with anxious
thoughts to the ground by men, who scraped the earth
and then huddled it up over the seed, just as if they were
burying and mourning for the dead.^ Surely this inter-
pretation of the custom and of the myth of Persephone is
not only beautiful but true.
And just as the Greek husbandman prayed to the Corn
Goddess when he committed the seed, with anxious fore-
bodings, to the furrows, so after he had reaped the harvest
and brought back the yellow sheaves with rejoicing to the
threshing-floor, he paid the bountiful goddess her dues in
the form of a thank-offering of golden grain. Theocritus
has painted for us in glowing colours a picture of a
wise unknown. See W. Froehner,
Musie Nationale du Louvre, Les In-
sc7-iptions Grecques (Paris, 1880), pp.
50 sq. Greek inscriptions found
at Mantinea refer to a worship of
Demeter and Persephone, who are
known to have had a sanctuary there
(Pausanias, viii. 9. 2). The people of
Mantinea celebrated "mysteries of the
goddess " and a festival called the
koragia, which seems to have repre-
sented the return of Persephone from
the lower world. See W. Immerwahr,
Die Kulte ntid My then Arkadiens
(Leipsic, 1891), pp. loo sq. ; S.
Reinach, Traits d^ Epigraphie Grecque
(Paris, 1885), pp. 141 sqq. ; Hesy-
chius, s.v. Kopdyeif.
1 Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 69.
■^ Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 70.
Similarly Cornutus says that " Hades
is fabled to have carried off Demeter's
daughter because the seed vanishes
for a time under the earth," and he
mentions that a festival of Demeter
was celebrated at the time of sowing
(Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28,
pp. 54, 55 ed. C. Lang). In a fragment
of a Greek calendar which is preserved
in the Louvre " the ascent (dcajSacrts) of
the goddess " is dated the seventh day
of the month Dius, and " the descent or
setting (5(''crts) of the goddess " is dated
the fourth day of the month Hephaes-
tius, a month which seems to be other-
II DE METER AND PERSEPHONE 47
rustic harvest -home, as it fell on a bright autumn day descrip-
some two thousand years ago in the little Greek island of ^"^" °^
Cos.^ The poet tells us how he went with two friends home in
from the city to attend a festival given by farmers, who *^^'
were offering first-fruits to Demeter from the store of
barley with which she had filled their barns. The day
was warm, indeed so hot that the very lizards, which
love to bask and run about in the sun, were slumbering in
the crevices of the stone-walls, and not a lark soared
carolling into the blue vault of heaven. Yet despite the
great heat there were everywhere signs of autumn. " All
things," says the poet, " smelt of summer, but smelt of
autumn too." Indeed the day was really autumnal ; for a
goat-herd who met the friends on their way to the rural
merry-making, asked them whether they were bound for the
treading of the grapes in the wine-presses. And when they
had reached their destination and reclined at ease in the
dappled shade of over-arching poplars and elms, with the
babble of a neighbouring fountain, the buzz of the cicalas,
the hum of bees, and the cooing of doves in their ears, the
ripe apples and pears rolled in the grass at their feet and
the branches of the wild-plum trees were bowed down to the
earth with the weight of their purple fruit. So couched on
soft beds of fragrant lentisk they passed the sultry hours
singing ditties alternately, while a rustic image of Demeter,
to whom the honours of the day were paid, stood smiling
beside a heap of yellow grain on the threshing-floor, with
corn-stalks and poppies in her hands.
In this description the time of year when the harvest- The
home was celebrated is clearly marked. Apart from the home de-
mention of the ripe apples, pears, and plums, the reference scribed by
'^^ ^^ -T^i V- 1 1- Theocritus
to the treading of the grapes is decisive. The Greeks gather feii in
and press the grapes in the first half of October,^ and autumn,
accordingly it is to this date that the harvest-festival de-
scribed by Theocritus must be assigned. At the present
1 Theocritus, Idyl. vii. Arcturus is a morning star, which in
the poet's age was on the 1 8th of
2 In ancient Greece the vintage September. See Hesiod, Works and
seems to have fallen somewhat earlier ; Days, 609 sqq. ; L. Ideler, Handbuch
for Hesiod bids the husbandman gather der mathernatischen tmd technischen
the ripe clusters at the time when Chronologie, i. 247.
48 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
day in Greece the maize-harvest immediately precedes the
vintage, the grain being reaped and garnered at the end of
September. TravelHng in rural districts of Argolis and
Arcadia at that time of the year you pass from time to time
piles of the orange-coloured cobs laid up ready to be shelled,
or again heaps of the yellow grain beside the pods. But
maize was unknown to the ancient Greeks, who, like
their modern descendants, reaped their wheat and barley
crops much earlier in the summer, usually from the end of
April till June.^ However, we may conclude that the day
immortalised by Theocritus was one of those autumn days
of great heat and effulgent beauty which in Greece may
occur at any time up to the very verge of winter. I
remember such a day at Panopeus on the borders of Phocis
and Boeotia. It was the first of November, yet the sun
shone in cloudless splendour and the heat was so great, that
when I had examined the magnificent remains of ancient
Greek fortification-walls which crown the summit of the
hill, it was delicious to repose on a grassy slope in the shade
of some fine holly-oaks and to inhale the sweet scent of the
wild thyme, which perfumed all the air. But it was summer's
farewell. Next morning the weather had completely changed.
A grey November sky lowered sadly overhead, and grey
mists hung like winding-sheets on the lower slopes of
the barren mountains which shut in the fatal plain of
Chaeronea.
The Greeks Thus we may infer that in the rural districts of ancient
seem to Greece farmers offered their first-fruits of the barley harvest
nave de- •'
ferred the to Dcmetcr in autumn about the time when the grapes were
firsT-'fruit*s being troddcu in the wine-presses and the ripe apples and
till the pears littered the ground in the orchards. At first sight the
order"to " lateness of the festival in the year is surprising ; for in the
propitiate lowlauds of Greece at the present day barley is reaped at
Goddess the end of April and wheat in May,^ and in antiquity the
at the time of harvest would seem not to have been very different,
moment of t t • i i_ • i 111 1 1 • 1 1 1
ploughing lor Hesiod bids the husbandman put the sickle to the corn
and sow- ^^ ^]^g morning rising of the Pleiades,^ which in his time
mg, when ° °
1 See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.
Edition, p. 190 note-.
2 See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second ^ Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sq.
s
n DE METER AND PERSEPHONE 49
took place on the eleventh of May/ But if the harvest was her help
reaped in spring or early summer, why defer the offerings u74nti
of corn to the Corn Goddess until the middle of autumn ? needed.
The reason for the delay is not, so far as I am aware,
explained by any ancient author, and accordingly it must
remain for us a matter of conjecture. I surmise that the
reason may have been a calculation on the part of the
practical farmer that the best time to propitiate the Corn
Goddess was not after harvest, when he had got all that was
to be got out of her, but immediately before ploughing and
sowing, when he had everything to hope from her good-will
and everything to fear from her displeasure. When he had
reaped his corn, and the sheaves had been safely garnered
in his barns, he might, so to say, snap his fingers at the
Corn Goddess. What could she do for him on the bare
stubble-field which lay scorched and baking under the fierce
rays of the sun all the long rainless summer through ? But
matters wore a very different aspect when, with the shorten-
ing and cooling of the days, he began to scan the sky for
clouds ^ and to listen for the cries of the cranes as they flew
southward, heralding by their trumpet-like notes the approach
of the autumnal rains. Then he knew that the time had
come to break up the ground that it might receive the seed
and be fertilised by the refreshing water of heaven ; then he
bethought him of the Corn Goddess once more and brought
forth from the grange a share of the harvested corn with
which to woo her favour and induce her to quicken the grain
which he was about to commit to the earth. On this theory
the Greek offering of first-fruits was prompted not so much
by gratitude for past favours as by a shrewd eye to favours to
come, and perhaps this interpretation of the custom does no
serious injustice to the cool phlegmatic temper of the bucolic
mind, which is more apt to be moved by considerations of profit
than by sentiment. At all events the reasons suggested for
delaying the harvest-festival accord perfectly with the natural
conditions and seasons of farming in Greece. For in that
country the summer is practically rainless, and during the
^ L. Ideler, Hattdbuck der mathe- 17, tireiSav yap 6 fieTOTnopLvbs XP^^°^
matischen tind technischen Chronologic, i\drj, -rravTes wov ol AvOpuiroL wpos rbv
i. 242. 0iov airo^X^irovtnv, oTrore ^pi^as rrjv
'^ Compare Xenophon, Oecononiicits, yriv dcprjafL avrovs (nreipeiv.
PT. v. VOL. I E
50
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
The fes-
tival of the
Proerosia
( ' ' Before
the Plough-
ing") held
at Eleusis
in honour
of
Demeter.
long months of heat and drought the cultivation of the two
ancient cereals, barley and wheat, is at a standstill. The
first rains of autumn fall about the middle of October,^ and
that was the Greek farmer's great time for ploughing and
sowing.'^ Hence we should expect him to make his offering
of first-fruits to the Corn Goddess shortly before he ploughed
and sowed, and this expectation is entirely confirmed by
the date which we have inferred for the offering from the
evidence of Theocritus. Thus the sacrifice of barley to
Demeter in the autumn would seem to have been not so
much a thank-offering as a bribe judiciously administered
to her at the very moment of all the year when her services
were most urgently wanted.
When with the progress of civilisation a number of
petty agricultural communities have merged into a single
state dependent for its subsistence mainly on the culti-
vation of the ground, it commonly happens that, though
every farmer continues to perform for himself the simple old
rites designed to ensure the blessing of the gods on his
crops, the government undertakes to celebrate similar, though
more stately and elaborate, rites on behalf of the whole
people, lest the neglect of public worship should draw down
on the country the wrath of the offended deities. Hence it
comes about that, for all their pomp and splendour, the
national festivals of such states are often merely magnified
and embellished copies of homely rites and uncouth ob-
servances carried out by rustics in the open fields, in barns,
and on threshing-floors. In ancient Egypt the religion of
Isis and Osiris furnishes examples of solemnities which have
been thus raised from the humble rank of rural festivities
to the dignity of national celebrations ; ^ and in ancient
Greece a like development may be traced in the religion of
Demeter. If the Greek ploughman prayed to Demeter and
Underground Zeus for a good crop before he put his hand
to the plough in autumn, the authorities of the Athenian
state celebrated about the same time and for the same
purpose a public festival in honour of Demeter at Eleusis.
' August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt
Athen im Altertum, p. 193.
2 See above, pp. 44 sqq.
^ See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second
Edition, pp. 283 sqq.
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 51
It was called the Proerosia, which signifies " Before the
Ploughing " ; and as the festival was dedicated to her,
Demeter herself bore the name of Proerosia. Tradition ran
that once on a time the whole world was desolated by a
famine, and that to remedy the evil the Pythian oracle bade
the Athenians offer the sacrifice of the Proerosia on behalf
of all men. They did so, and the famine ceased accordingly.
Hence to testify their gratitude for the deliverance people
sent the first-fruits of their harvest from all quarters to
Athens.^
But the exact date at which the Proerosia or Festival The
before Ploughing took place is somewhat uncertain, and en- ^^"^^"^^^
° ° ^ _ ' seems to
quirers are divided in opinion as to whether it fell before or have been
after the Great Mysteries, which began on the fifteenth or the^piou^°^-
sixteenth of Boedromion, a month corresponding roughly to ing in
our September. Another name for the festival was Proarc- 5^ after
turia, that is, " Before Arcturus," ^ which points to a date the Great
Mvstcrics
either before the middle of September, when Arcturus is a in'sep-
morning star, or before the end of October, when Arcturus teniber,
is an evening star.^ In favour of the earlier date it may be
said, first, that the morning phase of Arcturus was well
known and much observed, because it marked the middle of
autumn, whereas little use was made of the evening phase of
Arcturus for the purpose of dating ; * and, second, that in an
official Athenian inscription the Festival before Ploughing
{Proerosia) is mentioned immediately before the Great Mys-
' Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights, tween the similar Greek words for plague
720; Suidas, s.vv. elpfCTLwvTj and and famine (\oifi6s and Xt-fids). That
wporjpocrlai. ; Etymologiciim Afagnum, in the original version famine and not
Hesychius, and Photius, Lexicon, s.v. plague must have been alleged as the
■n-por)p6<jia ; Plutarch, Septem Sapientitm reason for instituting the Proerosia,
Convivutm, 15 ; Dittenberger, Sylloge appears plainly from the reference of
Inscriptiomtm Graecanim,'^ No. 521, the name to ploughing, from the dedi-
line 29, and No. 628 ; Aug. cation of the festival to Demeter, and
Mommsen, Fesie der Stadt Athen im from the offerings of first-fruits ; for
Altertttm (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 these circumstances, though quite ap-
sqq. The inscriptions prove that the propriate to ceremonies designed to
Proerosia was held at Eleusis and that stay or avert dearth and famine, would
it was distinct from the Great Mysteries, be quite inappropriate in the case of
being mentioned separately from them. a plague.
Some of the ancients accounted for 2 Hesychius, s.v. vpovpoa-ia.
the origin of the festival by a universal ... ,^ r ^ j^ <r, j4
, • » J f • 1 r ■ ^ August Mommsen, FesU der Stadt
plague instead of a universal famine. , , P , , .
V, f., ■ . r ..V . j„„Kt Athen im Altertum, p. 194.
But this version of the story no doubt ' ^
arose from the common confusion be- * August Mommsen, I.e.
S2
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
CHAP.
However,
the date of
the Great
Mysteries,
being
determined
by the
lunar
calendar,
must have
fluctuated
in the solar
year ;
whereas
the date
of the
Proerosia,
being
determined
by observa-
tion of
Arcturus,
must have
been fixed.
teries.^ On the other hand, in favour of the later date, it may-
be said that as the autumnal rains in Greece set in about the
middle of October, the latter part of that month would be a
more suitable time for a ceremony at the opening of ploughing
than the middle of September, when the soil is still parched
with the summer drought ; and, second, that this date is con-
firmed by a Greek inscription of the fourth or third century
B.C., found at Eleusis, in which the Festival before Ploughing
is apparently mentioned in the month of Pyanepsion im-
mediately before the festival of the Pyanepsia, which was
held on the seventh day of that month,^ It is difficult to
decide between these conflicting arguments, but on the whole
I incline, not without hesitation, to agree with some eminent
modern authorities in placing the Festival before Ploughing
in Pyanepsion (October) after the Mysteries, rather than in
Boedromion (September) before the Mysteries.^ However, we
must bear in mind that as the Attic months, like the Greek
months generally, were lunar,^ their position in the solar year
necessarily varied from year to year, and though these varia-
tions were periodically corrected by intercalation, nevertheless
the beginning of each Attic month sometimes diverged by
several weeks from the beginning of the corresponding
month to which we equate if^ From this it follows that the
Great Mysteries, which were always dated by the calendar
month, must have annually shifted their place somewhat in
the solar year ; whereas the Festival before Ploughing, if it was
indeed dated either by the morning or by the evening phase
of Arcturus, must have occupied a fixed place in the solar
year. Hence it appears to be not impossible that the Great
Mysteries, oscillating to and fro with the inconstant moon,
' Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum
Graecarum^ No. 521, lines 29 sqq.
2 Dittenberger, Sylloge htscriptiontim
Graecamm ^ No. 628.
2 The view that the Festival before
Ploughing (/'r^(?;-(7j?a) fell in Pyanepsion
is accepted by W. Mannhardt and W.
Dittenberger. See W. Mannhardt,
Antike IVald- und Feldkulte (Berlin,
1877), pp. 238 sq. ; id., Mythologische
Forschungen, p. 258 ; Dittenberger,
Sylloge Insc7-iptmium Graecariim^^
note 2 on Inscr. No. 628 (vol. ii. pp.
423 sq.). The view that the Festival
before Ploughing fell in Boedromion
is maintained by August Mommsen.
See his Heortologie (Leipsic, 1864),
pp. 218 sqq. ; id,, Feste der Stadt
Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898),
pp. 192 sqq.
* See below, p. 82.
5 L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathe-
matischen und technischen Chronologic
(Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 292 sq. ; com-
pare August Mommsen, Chronologie
(Leipsic, 1883), pp. 58 sq.
I
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 53
may sometimes have fallen before and sometimes after the
Festival before Ploughing, which apparently always remained
true to the constant star. At least this possibility, which seems
to have been overlooked by previous enquirers, deserves to
be taken into account. It is a corollary from the shifting
dates of the lunar months that the official Greek calendar, in
spite of its appearance of exactness, really furnished the
ancient farmer with little trustworthy guidance as to the
proper seasons for conducting the various operations of agri-
culture ; and he was well advised in trusting to various
natural timekeepers, such as the rising and setting of the
constellations, the arrival and departure of the migratory
birds, the flowering of certain plants,^ the ripening of fruits,
and the setting in of the rains, rather than to the fallacious
indications of the public calendar. It is by natural time-
keepers, and not by calendar months, that Hesiod determines
the seasons of the farmer's year in the poem which is the
oldest existing treatise on husbandry."
Just as the ploughman's prayer to Demeter, before he Offeringsof
drove the share through the clods of the field, was taken up fruits of the
and reverberated, so to say, with a great volume of sound barley and
in the public prayers which the Athenian state annually Demeter
offered to the goddess before the ploughing on behalf of the ^"^ p^*"-
° r- o o sephone at
whole world, so the simple first-fruits of barley, presented to Eieusis.
the rustic Demeter under the dappled shade of rustling
poplars and elms on the threshing-floor in Cos, were repeated
year by year on a grander scale in the first-fruits of the
barley and wheat harvest, which were presented to the Corn
Mother and the Corn Maiden at Eieusis, not merely by
every husbandman in Attica, but by all the allies and
subjects of Athens far and near, and even by many
free Greek communities beyond the sea. The reason
why year by year these offerings of grain poured from
far countries into the public granaries at Eieusis, was
1 For example, Theophrastus notes The poet indeed refers {yi'. 765 sqq.)
that squills flowered thrice a year, and to days of the month as proper times
that each flowering marked the time for engaging in certain tasks ; but such
for one of the three ploughings. See references are always simply to days
Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, v\\. of the lunar month and apply equally
1 3. 6. to every month ; they are never to days
- Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sqq. as dates in the solar year.
54 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
the widespread belief that the gift of corn had been first
bestowed by Demeter on the Athenians and afterwards
disseminated by them among all mankind through the
agency of Triptolemus, who travelled over the world in
his dragon-drawn car teaching all peoples to plough the
earth and to sow the seed/ In the fifth century before our
era the legend was celebrated by Sophocles in a play called
Triptolemus, in which he represented Demeter instructing
the hero to carry the seed of the fruits which she had
bestowed on men to all the coasts of Southern Italy,^ from
which we may infer that the cities of Magna Graecia were
among the number of those that sent the thank-offering of
barley and wheat every year to Athens. Again, in the
fourth century before our era Xenophon represents Callias,
the braggart Eleusinian Torchbearer, addressing the
Lacedaemonians in a set speech, in which he declared
that " Our ancestor Triptolemus is said to have bestowed the
seed of Demeter's corn on the Peloponese before any other
land. How then," he asked with pathetic earnestness, *' can
it be right that you should come to ravage the corn of the
men from whom you received the seed ? " ^ Again, writing
isocrates in the fourth century before our era Isocrates relates with
offerino^s of ^ swcU of patriotic pride how, in her search for her lost
first-fruits daughter Persephone, the goddess Demeter came to Attica
and gave to the ancestors of the Athenians the two greatest
of all gifts, the gift of the corn and the gift of the mysteries,
of which the one reclaimed men from the life of beasts and
the other held out hopes to them of a blissful eternity beyond
the grave. The antiquity of the tradition, the orator pro-
ceeds to say, was no reason for rejecting it, but quite the
contrary it furnished a strong argument in its favour, for
what many affirmed and all had heard might be accepted as
trustworthy. " And moreover," he adds, " we are not driven
to rest our case merely on the venerable age of the tradition
we can appeal to stronger evidence in its support. For
most of the cities send us every year the first-fruits of the
corn as a memorial of that ancient benefit, and when any of
1 See below, p. 72. 3 Xenophon, Historia Graeca, vi.
2 Dionysius Halicarnasensis, And- 3. 6.
quil. Rom. i. 12. 2.
11 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 55
them have failed to do so the Pythian priestess has com-
manded them to send the due portions of the fruits and to
act towards our city according to ancestral custom. Can
anything be supported by stronger evidence than by the
oracle of god, the assent of many Greeks, and the harmony
of ancient legend with the deeds of to-day ? " ^
This testimony of Isocrates to the antiquity both of Athenian
the legend and of the custom might perhaps have been set cernin<T^°"
aside, or at least disparaged, as the empty bombast of a the offer-
wordy rhetorician, if it had not happened by good chance fi"ft-f°uits
to be amply confirmed by an official decree of the Athenian ^t Eieusis.
people passed in the century before Isocrates wrote. The
decree was found inscribed on a stone at Eieusis and is
dated by scholars in the latter half of the fifth century before
our era, sometime between 446 and 420 B.c.^ It deals
with the first-fruits of barley and wheat which were offered
to the Two Goddesses, that is, to Demeter and Persephone,
not only by the Athenians and their allies but by the
Greeks in general. It prescribes the exact amount of barley
and wheat which was to be offered by the Athenians and
their allies, and it directs the highest officials at Eieusis,
namely the Hierophant and the Torchbearer, to exhort the
other Greeks at the mysteries to offer likewise of the first-fruits
of the corn. The authority alleged in the decree for re-
quiring or inviting offerings of first-fruits alike from Athenians
and from foreigners is ancestral custom and the bidding of
the Delphic oracle. The Senate is further enjoined to
send commissioners, so far as it could be done, to all
Greek cities whatsoever, exhorting, though not commanding,
them to send the first-fruits in compliance with ancestral
custom and the bidding of the Delphic oracle, and the state
officials are directed to receive the offerings from such states in
the same manner as the offerings of the Athenians and their
allies. Instructions are also given for the building of three
subterranean granaries at Eieusis, where the contributions
of grain from Attica were to be stored. The best of the corn
' Isocrates, Panegyric, 6 sq. pp. 33 sqq.) ; E, S. Roberts and E. A.
Gardner, An Introduction to Greek
2 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip- Epigraphy, Part ii. (Cambridge, 1905)
tionum Graecarum ,'^ No. 20 (vol. i. No. 9, pp. 22 sqq.
56
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
Even after
foreign
states
ceased to
send first-
fruits of the
corn to
Eleusis,
they con-
tinued to
acknow-
ledge the
benefit
which the
Athenians
had con-
ferred on
mankind
by diffusing
among
them
Demeter's
gift of
the corn.
was to be offered in sacrifice as the Eumolpids might direct :
oxen were to be bought and sacrificed, with gilt horns, not
only to the two Goddesses but also to the God (Pluto),
Triptolemus, Eubulus, and Athena ; and the remainder of
the grain was to be sold and with the produce votive offerings
were to be dedicated with inscriptions setting forth that they
had been dedicated from the offerings of first-fruits, and
recording the names of all the Greeks who sent the offerings
to Eleusis. The decree ends with a prayer that all who
comply with these injunctions or exhortations and render
their dues to the city of Athens and to the Two Goddesses,
may enjoy prosperity together with good and abundant crops.
Writing in the second century of our era, under the Roman
empire, the rhetorician Aristides records the custom which
the Greeks observed of sending year by year the first-fruits
of the harvest to Athens in gratitude for the corn, but he
speaks of the practice as a thing of the past.^
We may suspect that the tribute of corn ceased to flow
from far countries to Athens, when, with her falling fortunes
and decaying empire, her proud galleys had ceased to carry
the terror of the Athenian arms into distant seas. But if
the homage was no longer paid in the substantial shape of
cargoes of grain, it continued down to the latest days of
paganism to be paid in the cheaper form of gratitude for
that inestimable benefit, which the Athenians claimed to have
received from the Corn Goddess and to have liberally com-
municated to the rest of mankind. Even the Sicilians, who,
inhabiting a fertile corn-growing island, worshipped Demeter
and Persephone above all the gods and claimed to have been
the first to receive the gift of the corn from the Corn God-
dess," nevertheless freely acknowledged that the Athenians
had spread, though they had not originated, the useful
discovery among the nations. Thus the patriotic Sicilian
historian Diodorus, while giving the precedence to his fellow-
' Aristides, Paiiatheft. and £/eusiu.,
vol. i. pp. 167 sg., 417 ed. G. Dindorf
(Leipsic, 1829).
2 Diodorus Siculus, v. 2 and 4 ;
Cicero, l/t C. Verrem, act. ii. bk. iv.
chapters 48 sq. Both writers mention
that the whole of Sicily was deemed
sacred to Demeter and Persephone,
and that corn was said to have grown
in the island before it appeared any-
where else. In support of the latter
claim Diodorus Siculus (v. 2. 4) asserts
that wheat grew wild in many parts of
Sicily.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 57
countrymen, strives to be just to the Athenian pretensions Testimony
in the following passage.^ " Mythologists," says he, " relate skiiian
that Demeter, unable to find her daughter, lit torches at the historian
craters of Etna ^ and roamed over many parts of the world.
Those people who received her best she rewarded by giving
them in return the fruit of the wheat ; and because the
Athenians welcomed her most kindly of all, she bestowed
the fruit of the wheat on them next after the Sicilians.
Wherefore that people honoured the goddess more than any
other folk by magnificent sacrifices and the mysteries at
Eleusis, which for their extreme antiquity and sanctity have
become famous among all men. From the Athenians many
others received the boon of the corn and shared the seed
with their neighbours, till they filled the whole inhabited
earth with it. But as the people of Sicily, on account of
the intimate relation in which they stood to Demeter and
the Maiden, were the first to participate in the newly
discovered corn, they appointed sacrifices and popular
festivities in honour of each of the two goddesses, naming
the celebrations after them and signifying the nature of the
boons they had received by the dates of the festivals. For
they celebrated the bringing home of the Maiden at the time
when the corn was ripe, performing the sacrifice and holding
the festivity with all the solemnity and zeal that might be
reasonably expected of men who desired to testify their
gratitude for so signal a gift bestowed on them before all
the rest of mankind. But the sacrifice to Demeter they
assigned to the time when the sowing of the corn begins ;
and for ten days they hold a popular festivity which bears
the name of the goddess, and is remarkable as well for the
1 Diodorus Siculus, v. 4. Etna. In art Demeter and Persephone
and their attendants were often repre-
2 This legend, which is mentioned sented with torches in their hands. See
also by Cicero (/« C. Verrem, act. ii. L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek
bk. iv. ch. 48), was no doubt told to States, iii. (Oxford, 1907) plates xiii.,
explain the use of torches in the xv.a, xvi., xvii., xviii., xix., xx., xxi.a,
mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. xxv., xxvii.*^. Perhaps the legend of the
The author of the Homeric Hynin to torchlight search for Persephone and
Demeter tells us (verses 47 sq.) that the use of the torches in the mysteries
Demeter searched for her lost daughter may have originated in a custom of
for nine days with burning torches in carrying fire about the fields as a charm
her hands, but he does not say that the to secure sunshine for the corn. See
torches were kindled at the flames of The Golden Bough,- iii. 313.
58
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Testimony
of Cicero
and
Himerius.
The
Sicilians
seem to
have
associated
Demeter
with the
seed-corn
and Per-
sephone
with the
ripe ears.
magnificence of its pomp as for the costumes then worn in
imitation of the olden time. During these days it is cus-
tomary for people to rail at each other in foul language,
because when Demeter was mourning for the rape of the
Maiden she laughed at a ribald jest." ^ Thus despite his
natural prepossession in favour of his native land, Diodorus
bears testimony both to the special blessing bestowed on
the Athenians by the Corn Goddess, and to the generosity
with which they had imparted the blessing to others, until it
gradually spread to the ends of the earth. Again, Cicero,
addressing a Roman audience, enumerates among the benefits
which Athens was believed to have conferred on the world,
the gift of the corn and its origin in Attic soil ; and the
cursory manner in which he alludes to it seems to prove that
the tradition was familiar to his hearers,"^ Four centuries
later the rhetorician Himerius speaks of Demeter's gift of
the corn and the mysteries to the Athenians as the source
of the first and greatest service rendered by their city to
mankind ; ^ so ancient, widespread, and persistent was the
legend which ascribed the origin of the corn to the goddess
Demeter and associated it with the institution of the
Eleusinian mysteries. No wonder that the Delphic oracle
called Athens " the Metropolis of the Corn." *
From the passage of Diodorus which I have quoted we
learn that the Sicilians celebrated the festival of Demeter
at the beginning of sowing, and the festival of Persephone at
harvest. This proves that they associated, if they did not
identify, the Mother Goddess with the seed-corn and the
Daughter Goddess with the ripe ears. Could any associa-
tion or identification be more easy and obvious to people
who personified the processes of nature under the form of
1 The words which I have translated
•' the bringing home of the Maiden "
(t^s K6p7;s TTf)v KarayuyTji') are explained
with great probability by Professor M.P.
Nilsson as referring to the bringingof the
ripe corn to the barn or the threshing-
floor (^Griechische Feste, Leipsic, 1 906,
pp. 356 sq.). This interpretation
accords perfectly with a well-attested
sense of Karayiiiyfi and its cognate verb
KOiTd-yeiv, and is preferable to the other
possible interpretation "the bringing
down," whicli would refer to the
descent of Persephone into the nether
world ; for such a descent is hardly
appropriate to a harvest festival.
2 Cicero, Pro L. Flacco, 26.
^ Himerius, Orat. ii. 5.
* Mip-p67roXts TuJi' Kapirwi', Aristides,
Panathen. vol. i. p. 168 ed. G. Din-
dorf (Leipzig, 1829).
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 59
anthropomorphic deities ? As the seed brings forth the ripe
ear, so the Corn Mother Demeter gave birth to the Corn
Daughter Persephone. It is true that difficulties arise when Difficulty
we attempt to analyse this seemingly simple conception. "^^1^^'^"
How, for example, are we to divide exactly the two persons between
of the divinity? At what precise moment does the seed aiXpeT-
cease to be the Corn Mother and begins to burgeon out sephoneas
into the Corn Daughter ? And how far can we identify the fications of
material substance of the barley and wheat with the divine different
bodies of the Two Goddesses ? Questions of this sort prob- the corn
ably gave little concern to the sturdy swains who ploughed,
sowed, and reaped the fat fields of Sicily. We cannot imagine
that their night's rest was disturbed by uneasy meditations
on these knotty problems. It would hardly be strange if the
muzzy mind of the Sicilian bumpkin, who looked with blind
devotion to the Two Goddesses for his daily bread, totally
failed to distinguish Demeter from the seed and Perse-
phone from the ripe sheaves, and if he accepted implicitly
the doctrine of the real presence of the divinities in the corn
without discriminating too curiously between the material
and the spiritual properties of the barley or the wheat.
And if he had been closely questioned by a rigid logician as
to the exact distinction to be drawn between the two persons
of the godhead who together represented for him the annual
vicissitudes of the cereals, Hodge might have scratched his
head and confessed that it puzzled him to say where
precisely the one goddess ended and the other began, or
why the seed buried in the ground should figure at one time
as the dead daughter Persephone descending into the nether
world, and at another as the living Mother Demeter about
to give birth to next year's crop. Theological subtleties
like these have posed longer heads than are commonly to be
found on bucolic shoulders.
The time of year at which the first-fruits were offered The time of
to Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis is not explicitly ^hen^the
mentioned by ancient authorities, and accordingly no first-fruits
inference can be drawn from the date of the offering as ^g^g
to its religious significance. It is true that at the Eleusinian offered to
Demeter
mysteries the Hierophant and Torchbearer publicly exhorted and Per-
the Greeks in general, as distinguished from the Athenians sephone at
6o
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Eleusis is
not known.
The
Festival
of the
Threshing-
floor
(Haloa)
at Eleusis.
and their allies, to offer the first-fruits in accordance with
ancestral custom and the bidding of the Delphic oracle.^
But there is nothing to shew that the offerings were made
immediately after the exhortation. Nor does any ancient
authority support the view of a modern scholar that the
offering of the first-fruits, or a portion of them, took place at
the Festival before Ploughing {Proerosid)^ though that festival
would no doubt be an eminently appropriate occasion for
propitiating with such offerings the goddess on whose bounty
the next year's crop was believed to depend.
On the other hand, we are positively told that the first-
fruits were carried to Eleusis to be used at the Festival of
the Threshing-floor {Haloa)? But the statement, cursorily
reported by writers of no very high authority, cannot be
implicitly relied upon ; and even if it could, we should
hardly be justified in inferring from it that all the first-fruits
of the corn were offered to Demeter and Persephone at this
1 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptioiitivi
Graecarumj^ No. 20, lines 25 sgq. ;
E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner,
Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, ii.
(Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, lines 25
sqq., Kekeviro} 5e /cat 6 iepotpdvTrjs kclI 6
5g.8ovxos IJ.V(TTT] plots dirdpxeffdai rovs
"E\\7;cas Tov Kapirov Kara, to, irdrpia Kai
TTjv /xavTelav ttjv iy AeXcpwv. By coup-
ling fj.vaTripioiS with dirdpxecrdai. instead
of with KeXeueTd}, Miss J. E. Harrison
understands the offering instead of the
exhortation to have been made at the
mysteries {Prolegomena to the Study of
Greek Religion, Second Edition, p. 155,
"Let the Hierophant and the Torch -
bearer command that at the mysteries
the Hellenes should offer first-fruits of
their crops," etc. ). This interpretation
is no doubt grammatically permissible,
but the context seems to plead strongly,
if not to be absolutely decisive, in favour
of the other. It is to be observed
that the exhortation was addressed not
to the Athenians and their allies (who
were compelled to make the offering)
but only to the other Greeks, who
might make it or not as they pleased ;
and the amount of such voluntary con-
tributions was probably small compared
to that of the compulsory contributions,
as to the date of which nothing is said.
That the proclamation to the Greeks in
general was an exhortation (KeXeu^rw),
not a command, is clearly shewn by
the words of the decree a few lines
lower down, where commissioners are
directed to go to all Greek states
exhorting but not commanding them
to offer the first-fruits (iKeboLS di /xt]
eiriTaTTOVTas, KeXeiJOvras d^ dwapx^o'dai
idv ^oiXwvTaL Kara to, TrdrpLa Kai t^v
fxavTeiav iy AeX^tDc). The Athenians
could not command free and independ-
ent states to make such offerings, still
less could they prescribe the exact date
when the offerings were to be made.
All that they could and did do was,
taking advantage of the great assembly
of Greeks from all quarters at the
mysteries, to invite or exhort, by the
mouth of the great priestly function-
aries, the foreigners to contribute.
2 August Mommsen, Peste der Stadt
Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898),
pp. 192 sqq.
3 Eustathius on Homer, Iliad, ix.
534> P- 772 ; Im. Bekker, Anecdota
Graeca, i. 384 sq., s.v. 'AXCoa. Com-
pare O. Rubensohn, Die Jlfysterien-
heiligtiimer in Eleusis und Samothrake
(Berlin, 1892), p. 1 16.
II DE METER AND PERSEPHONE 6i
festival. Be that as it may, the Festival of the Threshing-
floor was intimately connected with the worship both of
Demeter and of Dionysus, and accordingly it deserves our
attention. It is said to have been sacred to both these
deities ; ^ and while the name seems to connect it rather
with the Corn Goddess than with the Wine God, we are
yet informed that it was held by the Athenians on the
occasion of the pruning of the vines and the tasting of the
stored-up wine." The festival is frequently mentioned in
Eleusinian inscriptions, from some of which we gather
that it included sacrifices to the two goddesses and a so-
called Ancestral Contest, as to the nature of which we have
no information.^ We may suppose that the festival or some
part of it was celebrated on the Sacred Threshing-floor
of Triptolemus at Eleusis ; * for as Triptolemus was the
hero who is said to have diffused the knowledge of the
corn all over the world, nothing could be more natural
than that the Festival of the Threshing-floor should be
held on the sacred threshing-floor which bore his name.
As for Demeter, we have already seen how intimate was her
association with the threshing-floor and the operation of
threshing ; according to Homer, she is the yellow goddess who
parts the yellow grain from the white chaff at the threshing,
and in Cos her image with the corn-stalks and the poppies
1 Eustathius on Homer, Iliad, ix. at Eleusis (Pausanias, i. 38. 6) is no
534, p. 772; Im. Bekker, Anecdota doubt identical with the Sacred Thresh-
Graeca, i. 384 sq., s.v. 'AXcDa. ing- floor mentioned in the great
^ Scholia in Luciaiium, ed. H. Rabe Eleusinian inscription of 329 B.C.
(Leipsic, 1906), pp. 279 sq. (scholium (Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptiomim
on Dialog. Meretr. vii. 4). G?-aecarum,'^ No. 587, line 234). We
2 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip- read of a hierophant who, contrary to
tionuni Graecarum^ Nos. 192, 246, ancestral custom, sacrificed a victim on
587, 640 ; 'E(p7]iJ.eph 'Apxa^oXoyiKr], the hearth in the Hall at Eleusis during
1884, coll. 135 sq. The passages of the Festival of the Threshing-floor,
inscriptions and of ancient authors "it being unlawful to sacrifice victims
which refer to the festival are collected on that day" (Demosthenes, Contra
by Dr. L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Neaeram, 116, pp. 1384 sq.), but from
Greek States, iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp. such an unlawful act no inference can
315 sq. For a discussion of the be drawn as to the place where the
evidence see August Mommsen, Teste festival was held. That the festival
der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, probably had special reference to the
1898), pp. 359 sqq. ; Miss J. E. threshing-floor of Triptolemus has
Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study already been pointed out by O. Ruben -
of Greek Religion, Second Edition sohn {Die Mysterienheiligtiimer in
(Cambridge, 1908), pp. 145 sqq. Eleusis tuid Samothrake, Berlin, 1892,
"^ The threshing-floor of Triptolemus p. 118).
62
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
in her hands stood on the threshing-floor.^ The festival
lasted one day, and no victims might be sacrificed at it ; ^ but
special use was made, as we have seen, of the first-fruits of
Date of the corn. With regard to the dating of the festival we are
the Festival ij^fQi-j^ed that it fell in the month Poseideon, which corre-
of the
Threshing- sponds roughly to our December, and as the date rests on
^mioa) at t^^ ^'g^ authority of the ancient Athenian antiquary Philo-
Eieusis. chorus,^ and is, moreover, indirectly confirmed by inscrip-
tional evidence,* we are bound to accept it. But it is
certainly surprising to find a Festival of the Threshing-floor
held so late in the year, long after the threshing, which in
Greece usually takes place not later than midsummer, though
on high ground in Crete it is sometimes prolonged till near
the end of August.'^ We seem bound to conclude that the
Festival of the Threshing-floor was quite distinct from the
actual threshing of the corn.^ It is said to have included
certain mystic rites performed by women alone, who feasted
and quaffed wine, while they broke filthy jests on each other
and exhibited cakes baked in the form of the male and female
organs of generation.'^ If the latter particulars are correctly
reported we may suppose that these indecencies, like certain
obscenities which seem to have formed part of the Great
Mysteries at Eleusis,^ were no mere wanton outbursts of
licentious passion, but were deliberately practised as rites
calculated to promote the fertility of the ground by means
of homoeopathic or imitative magic. A like association of
^ Seeabove, pp. 41 j^.,43. Maximus
Tyrius observes {Dtssertat. xxx. 5) that
husbandmen were the first to celebrate
sacred rites in honour of Demeter at
the threshing-floor.
2 See above, p. 61, note*.
^ Harpocration, s.v. ' AXGia (vol. i.
p. 24, ed. G. Dindorf).
* Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
tioniim Graecarum^ No. 587, lines
124, 144, with the editor's notes ;
August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt
Athen ivi Altertum, p. 360.
° So I am informed by my friend
Professor J. L. Myres, who speaks
from personal observation.
^ This is recognised by Professor
M. P. Nilsson. See his Studia de
Diotiysiis Atticis (Lund, 1900), pp.
95 sqq., and his Griechische Feste, p.
329. To explain the lateness of the
festival, Miss J. E. Harrison suggests
that " the shift of date is due to
Dionysos. The rival festivals of
Dionysos were in mid - winter. He
possessed himself of the festivals of
Demeter, took over her threshing-floor
and compelled the anomaly of a winter
threshing festival " {Prolegomena to
the Study of Greek Religion, Second
Edition, p. 147).
^ Scholiast on Lucian, Dial. Meretr.
vii. 4 (Scholia in Lucianum, ed. H.
Rabe, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 279-281).
* Clement of Alexandria, Protrept.
ii. 15 and 20, pp. 13 and 17 ed.
Potter ; Arnobius, Adversus Natiorus,
V. 25-27, 35, 39.
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 63
what we might call indecency with rites intended to promote
the growth of the crops meets us in the Thesmophoria, a
festival of Demeter celebrated by women alone, at which
the character of the goddess as a source of fertility comes
out clearly in the custom of mixing the remains of the
sacrificial pigs with the seed-corn in order to obtain a
plentiful crop. We shall return to this festival later on.^
Other festivals held at Eleusis in honour of Demeter and The Green
Persephone were known as the Green Festival and the ^''-^"y^i
^ and the
Festival of the Cornstalks. Of the manner of their celebra- Festival
tion we know nothing except that they comprised sacrifices, cornstalks
which were offered to Demeter and Persephone. But their at Eieusis.
names suffice to connect the two festivals with the green
and the standing corn. We have seen that Demeter
herself bore the title of Green, and that sacrifices were
offered to her under that title which plainly aimed at pro-
moting fertility.^ Among the many epithets applied to Epithets of
Demeter which mark her relation to the corn may further ^^'"^'^'"
■' referring to
be mentioned " Wheat-lover," " She of the Corn," ^ " Sheaf- the com.
bearer," ^ " She of the Threshing-floor," ^ " She of the Win-
nowing-fan," ^ " Nurse of the Corn-ears," ^ " Crowned with
Ears of Corn," ^^ " She of the Seed," ^^ " She of the Green
Fruits," ^^ "Heavy with Summer Fruits,"" " Fruit -bearer," ^'*
^ See below, p. 116; vol. ii. pp. •» Nonnus, Dionys. xvii. 153. The
17 sqq. Athenians sacrificed to her under this
2 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip- title (Eustathius, on Homer, Iliad,
lionum Graecartim,^ No. 640; Ch. xviii. 553, p. I162).
Michel, Recueil d^ Inscriptions Grecgues '^ Theocritus, /rfj'/. vii. 155; Orphica,
(Brussels, 1900), No. 135, p. 145. xl. 5.
To be exact, while the inscription * Anthologia Palatina, vi. 98. i.
definitely mentions the sacrifices to ^ Orphica, xl. 3.
Demeter and Persephone at the '^ Anthologia Palatina, vi. 104. 8.
Green Festival, it does not record the ^^ Orphica, xl. 5.
deities to whom the sacrifice at the '- Ibid.
Festival of the Cornstalks (ttjv rwv '^ Orphica, xl. 18.
KaXafialuv dvffiav) was oflfered. But '* This title she shared with Perse-
mentioned as it is in immediate con- phone at Tegea (Pausanias, viii. 53. 7),
nexion with the sacrifices to Demeter and under it she received annual sacri-
and Persephone at the Green Festival, fices at Ephesus (Dittenberger, Sylloge
we may fairly suppose that the sacrifice Inscriptionum Graecarum,- No. 655).
at the Festival of the Cornstalks was It was applied to her also at Epidaurus
also offered to these goddesses. ('E07?/x. Apx-, 1883, col. 153) and at
3 See above, p. 42. Athens (Aristophanes, Frogs, 382), and
* Anthologia Palatina, vi. 36. i sq. appears to have been a common title of
* Polemo, cited by Athenaeus, iii. the goddess. See L. R. Farnell, The
9, p. 416 B. Cults of the Greek States, iii. 318 note ^".
64
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Belief in
ancient
and
modern
times that
the corn-
crops
depend on
possession
of an
image of
Demeter.
" She of the Great Loaf," and " She of the Great Barley
Loaf." ^ Of these epithets it may be remarked that though
all of them are quite appropriate to a Corn Goddess, some
of them would scarcely be applicable to an Earth Goddess
and therefore they add weight to the other arguments which
turn the scale in favour of the corn as the fundamental
attribute of Demeter.
How deeply implanted in the mind of the ancient
Greeks was this faith in Demeter as goddess of the corn
may be judged by the circumstance that the faith actually
persisted among their Christian descendants at her old
sanctuary of Eleusis down to the beginning of the nineteenth
century. For when the English traveller Dodwell revisited
Eleusis, the inhabitants lamented to him the loss of a
colossal image of Demeter, which was carried off by Clarke
in 1802 and presented to the University of Cambridge,
where it still remains. " In my first journey to Greece,"
says Dodwell, " this protecting deity was in its full glory,
situated in the centre of a threshing-floor, amongst the ruins
of her temple. The villagers were impressed with a per-
suasion that their rich harvests were the effect of her bounty,
and since her removal, their abundance, as they assured me,
has disappeared." '^ Thus we see the Corn Goddess Demeter
^ Polemo, cited by Athenaeus, iii.
73, p. 109 A B, X. 9. p. 416 c.
2 E. Dodwell, A Classical and
Topographical Tour through Greece
(London, 1819), i. 583. E. D. Clarke
found the image " on the side of the
road, immediately before entering the
village, and in the midst of a heap of
dung, buried as high as the neck, a
little beyond the farther extremity of
the pavement of the temple. Yet even
this degrading situation had not been
assigned to it wholly independent of its
antient history. The inhabitants of
the small village which is now situated
among the ruins of Eleusis still re-
garded this statue with a very high
degree of superstitious veneration.
They attributed to its presence the
fertility of their land ; and it was for
this reason that they heaped around it
the manure intended for their fields.
Thev believed that the loss of it would
be followed by no less a calamity than
the failure of their annual harvests ;
and they pointed to the ears of bearded
wheat, upon the sculptured ornaments
upon the head of the figure, as a never-
failing indication of the produce of the
soil." When the statue was about to
be removed, a general murmur ran
among the people, the women joining
in the clamour. " They had been
always," they said, "famous for their
corn ; and the fertility of the land
would cease when the statue was
removed." See E. D. Clarke, Travels
in various Countries of Europe, Asia,
and Africa, m. (London, 1814) pp. 772-
774) 787 sq. Compare J. C. Lawson,
Modern Gi-eek Folklore and Ancient
Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1 9 10),
p. 80, who tells us that "the statue
was regularly crowned with flowers
in the avowed hope of obtaining good
harvests."
II DE METER AND PERSEPHONE 65
standing on the threshing-floor of Eleusis and dispensing
corn to her worshippers in the nineteenth century of the
Christian era, precisely as her image stood and dispensed
corn to her worshippers on the threshing-floor of Cos in the
days of Theocritus. And just as the people of Eleusis last
century attributed the diminution of their harvests to the
loss of the image of Demeter, so in antiquity the Sicilians,
a corn-growing people devoted to the worship of the two
Corn Goddesses, lamented that the crops of many towns had
perished because the unscrupulous Roman governor Verres
had impiously carried off the image of Demeter from her
famous temple at Henna.^ Could we ask for a clearer proof
that Demeter was indeed the goddess of the corn than this
belief, held by the Greeks down to modern times, that the
corn -crops depended on her presence and bounty and
perished when her image was removed ?
In a former part of this work I followed an eminent Sacred
French scholar in concluding, from various indications, that ^f^2eus^^
part of the religious drama performed in the mysteries of and
Eleusis may have been a marriage between the sky-god at^Eieusis.
Zeus and the corn-goddess Demeter, represented by the
hierophant and the priestess of the goddess respectively.^
The conclusion is arrived at by combining a number of
passages, all more or less vague and indefinite, of late
Christian writers ; hence it must remain to some extent
uncertain and cannot at the best lay claim to more than
a fair degree of probability. It may be, as Professor W.
Ridgeway holds, that this dramatic marriage of the god and
goddess was an innovation foisted into the Eleusinian
•Mysteries in that great welter of religions which followed
the meeting of the East and the West in the later ages of
antiquity.^ If a marriage of Zeus and Demeter did indeed
form an important feature of the Mysteries in the fifth cen-
tury before our era, it is certainly remarkable, as Professor
Ridgeway has justly pointed out, that no mention of Zeus
1 Cicero, In C. Verrem, act. ii. lib. friend Professor Ridgeway in a paper
iv. 51. which I had the advantage of hear-
<i T-L T\^ ■ A 4 J 4U J? J 4- ing him read at Cambridge in the
^ The Mane Art and the Evolution ° ^ n 'tt.,
^ „. •• ^o early part of loii. Compare The
cfKtngs,u.iZ^sg. Athenaeum, No. 4360, May 20th,
2 This view was expressed by my 191 1, p. 576.
PT. V. VOL. I V
66
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Homer on
the love of
Zeus for
Demeter.
Zeus the
Sky God
may have
been
confused
with Sub-
terranean
Zeus, that
is, Pluto.
occurs in the public decree of that century which regulates
the offerings of first-fruits and the sacrifices to be made to
the gods and goddesses of Eleusis.^ At the same time we
must bear in mind that, if the evidence for the ritual marriage
of Zeus and Demeter is late and doubtful, the evidence for
the myth is ancient and indubitable. The story was known
to Homer, for in the list of beauties to whom he makes
Zeus, in a burst of candour, confess that he had lost his too
susceptible heart, there occurs the name of " the fair-haired
Queen Demeter " ; ^ and in another passage the poet repre-
sents the jealous god smiting with a thunderbolt the favoured
lover with whom the goddess had forgotten her dignity
among the furrows of a fallow field.^ Moreover, according
to one tradition, Dionysus himself was the offspring of the
intrigue between Zeus and Demeter.* Thus there is no
intrinsic improbability in the view that one or other of these
unedifying incidents in the backstairs chronicle of Olympus
should have formed part of the sacred peep-show in the
Eleusinian Mysteries. But it seems just possible that the
marriage to which the Christian writers allude with malicious
joy may after all have been of a more regular and orthodox
pattern. We are positively told that the rape of Persephone
was acted at the Mysteries ; ^ may that scene not have
been followed by another representing the solemnisation of
her nuptials with her ravisher and husband Pluto ? It is to
be remembered that Pluto was sometimes known as a god
of fertility under the title of Subterranean Zeus. It was to
him under that title as well as to Demeter, that the Greek
ploughman prayed at the beginning of the ploughing ; ^ and
the people of Myconus used to sacrifice to Subterranean
Zeus and Subterranean Earth for the prosperity of the crops
on the twelfth day of the month Lenaeon.'' Thus it may
be that the Zeus whose marriage was dramatically repre-
sented at the Mysteries was not the sky-god Zeus, but his
1 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptioium
Gi-aecaj-uffi,'^ No. 20 ; E. S. Roberts
and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek
Epig)-aphy, ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No.
9, pp. 22 sq. See above, pp. 55 sq.
2 Homer, Iliad, xiv. 326.
^ Homer, Odyssey, v. 125 sqq.
* Diodorus Siculus, iii. 62. 6.
5 Clement of Alexandria, Protrept.
12, p. 12, ed. Potter.
^ Hesiod, Works and Days, 465 sqq.
' Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
tionum Graecarum,'^ No. 6l5> lines 25
sq. ; Ch. Michel, Recueil d^ Inscriptions
Grecques, No. 714; J. de Prott et L.
Ziehen, Leges Graecortifn Sacrae, No. 4.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 67
brother Zeus of the Underworld, and that the writers who
refer to the ceremony have confused the two brothers. This
view, if it could be established, would dispose of the difficulty
raised by the absence of the name of Zeus in the decree
which prescribes the offerings to be made to the gods of
Eleusis ; for although in that decree Pluto is not mentioned
under the name of Subterranean Zeus, he is clearly referred
to, as the editors of the inscription have seen, under the
vague title of " the God," while his consort Persephone is
similarly referred to under the title of " the Goddess," and it
is ordained that perfect victims shall be sacrificed to both of
them. However, if we thus dispose of one difficulty, it
must be confessed that in doing so we raise another. For
if the bridegroom in the Sacred Marriage at Eleusis was
not the sky-god Zeus, but the earth-god Pluto, we seem
driven to suppose that, contrary to the opinion of the reverend
Christian scandal-mongers, the bride was his lawful wife
Persephone and not his sister and mother-in-law Demeter.
In short, on the hypothesis which I have suggested we are
compelled to conclude that the ancient busybodies who
lifted the veil from the mystic marriage were mistaken as to
the person both of the divine bridegroom and of the divine
bride. In regard to the bridegroom I have conjectured
that they may have confused the two brothers, Zeus of the
Upper World and Zeus of the Lower World. In regard to Demeter
the bride, can any reason be suggested for confounding the ^^^^ ^^^_
persons of the mother and daughter ? On the view here fused with
taken of the nature of Demeter and Persephone nothing ge^phone;
could be easier than to confuse them with each other, '^ art the
, . 1 IT - I types of
for both of them were mythical embodiments ot the corn, the two
the mother Demeter standing for the old corn of last year goddesses
° are often
and the daughter Persephone standing for the new corn of very
this year. In point of fact Greek artists, both of the archaic similar.
and of later periods, frequently represent the Mother
and Daughter side by side in forms which resemble each
other so closely that eminent modern experts have some-
times differed from each other on the question, which
is Demeter and which is Persephone ; indeed in some
cases it might be quite impossible to distinguish the
two if it were not for the inscriptions attached to the
68
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
figures.^ The ancient sculptors, vase-painters, and engravers
must have had some good reason for portraying the two god-
desses in types which are almost indistinguishable from each
other ; and what better reason could they have had than the
knowledge that the two persons of the godhead were one
in substance, that they stood merely for two different
aspects of the same simple natural phenomenon, the growth
of the corn ? Thus it is easy to understand why Demeter
and Persephone may have been confused in ritual as well as
in art, why in particular the part of the divine bride in a
Sacred Marriage may sometimes have been assigned to the
Mother and sometimes to the Daughter. But all this, I
fully admit, is a mere speculation, and I only put it forward
as such. We possess far too little information as to a
Sacred Marriage in the Eleusinian Mysteries to be justified
in speaking with confidence on so obscure a subject.
1 See L. R. Fainell, The Cutts of
the Greek States, iii. (Oxford, 1907), p.
259, " It was long before the mother
could be distinguished from the daughter
by any organic difference of form or by
any expressive trait of countenance.
On the more ancient vases and terra-
cottas they appear rather as twin-sisters,
almost as if the inarticulate artist were
aware of their original identity of sub-
stance. And even among the monu-
ments of the transitional period it is
difficult to find any representation of
the goddesses in characters at once
clear and impressive. We miss this
even in the beautiful vase of Hieron in
the British Museum, where the divine
pair are seen with Triptolemos : the
style is delicate and stately, and there
is a certain impression of inner tranquil
life in the group, but without the aid
of the inscriptions the mother would
not be known from the daughter " ;
id., vol. iii. 274, "But it would be
wrong to give the impression that the
numismatic artists of this period were
always careful to distinguish — in such
a manner as the above works indicate
— between mother and daughter. The
old idea of their unity of substance still
seemed to linger as an art-tradition :
the very type we have just been exam-
ining appears on a fourth-century coin
of Hermione, and must have been used
here to designate Demeter Chthonia
who was there the only form that the
corn-goddess assumed. And even at
Metapontum, where coin - engraving
was long a great art, a youthful head
crowned with corn, which in its own
right and on account of its resemblance
to the masterpiece of Euainetos could
claim the name of Kore [Persephone], is
actually inscribed 'Damater.'" Com-
pare J. Overbeck, Griechische Kunst-
mythologie, iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1878),
p. 453. In regard, for example, to the
famous Eleusinian bas-relief, one of the
most beautiful monuments of ancient
religious art, which seems to represent
Demeter giving the corn - stalks to
Triptolemus, while Persephone crowns
his head, there has been much diver-
gence of opinion among the learned as
to which of the goddesses is Demeter
and which Persephone. See J. Over-
beck, op. cit. iii. 427 sqq. ; L. R.
Farnell, op. cit. iii. 263 sq. On the
close resemblance of the artistic types
of Demeter and Persephone see further
E. Gerhard, Gesammelte akademische
Abhandlungen (Berlin, 1866-1868), ii.
357 sqq. ; F. Lenormant, in Daremberg
et Saglio, Didionnaire des Antiquitis
Grecques et Romaines, i. 2, s.v.
" Ceres," p. 1049.
a DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 69
One thing, however, which we may say with a fair The date
degree of probabiHty is that, if such a marriage did take °^*^*^
1 T-i • -1 -1 Eleusinian
place at Kleusis, no date m the agricultural year could well Mysteries
have been more appropriate for it than the date at which 'Z* ^^p^^J"-
the Mysteries actually fell, namely about the middle of have been
September, The long Greek summer is practically rainless LopHate
and in the fervent heat and unbroken drought all nature time for a
languishes. The river-beds are dry, the fields parched. The Ma^iatrg
farmer awaits impatiently the setting-in of the autumnal rains, oftheSky
which begin in October and mark the great season for plough- the Corn
ing and sowing. What time could be fitter for celebrating Goddess
. ''or the
the union of the Corn Goddess with her husband the Earth Earth
God or perhaps rather with her paramour the Sky God, who Goddess.
will soon descend in fertilising showers to quicken the seed
in the furrows ? Such embraces of the divine powers or
their human representatives might well be deemed, on the
principles of homoeopathic or imitative magic, indispensable
to the growth of the crops. At least similar ideas have
been entertained and similar customs have been practised
by many peoples ; ^ and in the legend of Demeter's love-
adventure among the furrows of the thrice-ploughed fallow ^
we seem to catch a glimpse of rude rites of the same sort
performed in the fields at sowing-time by Greek ploughmen
for the sake of ensuring the growth of the seed which they
were about to commit to the bosom of the naked earth. In
this connexion a statement of ancient writers as to the rites
of Eleusis receives fresh significance. We are told that at
these rites the worshippers looked up to the sky and cried
" Rain ! " and then looked down at the earth and cried
" Conceive ! " ^ Nothing could be more appropriate at a
marriage of the Sky God and the Earth or Corn Goddess
than such invocations to the heaven to pour down rain and
to the earth or the corn to conceive seed under the fertilising
shower ; in Greece no time could well be more suitable for
' The Magic Art and the Evolution for vie, roKVie {Aglaophavms, p. 782)
of Kings, ii. 97 sqq. may be accepted as certain, confirmed
^ Homer, Odyssey, v. 125 sqq. as it is by Hippolytus, Refutatio Om-
3 Proclus, on Plato, Timaeus, p. nium Haeresium, v. 7, p. 146, ed.
293 c, quoted by L. F. Famell, The Duncker and Schneidewin (Gottingen,
Cults of the Greek States, iii. 357, 1859), rb ixiya Kai dpprjTov 'EXeiaifit^v
where Lobeck's emendation of iie, Kije fivcrrripiov ve Kve.
70
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
The
Eleusinian
games
distinct
from the
Eleusinian
Mysteries.
The
Eleusinian
games
of later
origin
than the
Eleusinian
Mysteries.
the utterance of such prayers than just at the date when the
Great Mysteries of Eleusis were celebrated, at the end of
the long drought of summer and before the first rains of
autumn.
Different both from the Great Mysteries and the offer-
ings of first-fruits at Eleusis were the games which were
celebrated there on a great scale once in every four years
and on a less scale once in every two years.^ That the
games were distinct from the Mysteries is proved by
their periods, which were quadriennial and biennial respec-
tively, whereas the Mysteries were celebrated annually.
Moreover, in Greek epigraphy, our most authentic evidence
in such matters, the games and the Mysteries are clearly
distinguished from each other by being mentioned separately
in the same inscription.^ But like the Mysteries the
games seem to have been very ancient ; for the Parian
Chronicler, who wrote in the year 264 B.C., assigns the
foundation of the Eleusinian games to the reign of Pandion,
the son of Cecrops. However, he represents them as of
later origin than the Eleusinian Mysteries, which according
to him were instituted by Eumolpus in the reign of
Erechtheus, after Demeter had planted corn in Attica and
Triptolemus had sown seed in the Rarian plain at Eleusis.^
This testimony to the superior antiquity of the Mysteries
is in harmony with our most ancient authority on the rites
of Eleusis, the author of the Hymn to Demeter, who
describes the origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries, but makes
no reference or allusion to the Eleusinian Games. However,
the great age of the games is again vouched for at a much
^ As to the Eleusinian games see
August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt
Athen i?n Altertuni, pp. 179-20^; P.
Foucart, Les Grands Mysteres d Eleusis
(Paris, 1900), pp. 143-147; P. Stengel,
in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopddie
der classischeji Altertumsivissenschaft,
V. coll. 2330 sqq. The quadriennial
celebration of the Eleusinian Games is
mentioned by Aristotle ( Cotistitution of
Athens, 54), and in the great Eleu-
sinian inscription of 329 B.C., which is
also our only authority for the biennial
celebration of the games. See Ditten-
berger, Sylloge Inscripiiomtni Grae-
carum,"^ No.. 587, lines 258 sgq. The
regular and official name of the games
was simply Eletisinia (to, 'EXeutr/i'ta),
a name which late writers applied in-
correctly to the Mysteries. See August
Mommsen, op. cit. pp. 179 sqq. ;
Dittenberger, op, cit. No. 587, note ^''i.
2 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
tiotium Graecarum,"^ No. 246, lines 25
sqq. ; id. No. 587, lines 244 sq.,
258 sqq.
3 Marmor Pariuni, in Fragmenta
Historicor-um Graecorum, ed. C.
Miiller, i. 544 sq.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 71
later date by the rhetorician Aristides, who even declares
that they were the oldest of all Greek games.^ With The
regard to the nature and meaning: of the games our infor- ^'^"^'"■^'1
° . , o & games
mation is extremely scanty, but an old scholiast on Pindar sacred to
tells us that they were celebrated in honour of Demeter and fifc^pg^
Persephone as a thank-offering at the conclusion of the corn- sephone.
harvest.' His testimony is confirmed by that of the
rhetorician Aristides, who mentions the institution of the
Eleusinian games in immediate connexion with the offerings
of the first-fruits of the corn, which many Greek states sent
to Athens ; ^ and from an inscription dated about the close
of the third century before our era we learn that at the
Great Eleusinian Games sacrifices were offered to Demeter
and Persephone/ Further, we gather from an official
Athenian inscription of 329 B.C. that both the Great and
the Lesser Games included athletic and musical con-
tests, a horse-race, and a competition which bore the
name of the Ancestral or Hereditary Contest, and which
accordingly may well have formed the original kernel of
the games.^ Unfortunately nothing is known about this
Ancestral Contest. We might be tempted to identify it
with the Ancestral Contest included in the Eleusinian
Festival of the Threshing-floor,'' which was probably held
^ Aristides, Panatheii. and Eleusin. op. cit. No. 678, line 2). The pan-
vol. i. pp. 168, 417, ed. G. Dindorf. cratium included wrestling and boxing ;
2 Schol. on Pindar, Olymp. ix. the pentathlum included a foot-race,
150, p. 228, ed. Aug. Boeckh. leaping, throwing the quoit, throwing
3 Aristides, 11. cc. the spear, and wrestling. See W.
* Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip- Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Pomaa
tionum Graecarum,'^ No. 246, lines 25 Antiqttities,Th'ird Edition, s.vv. "Pan-
sqq. The editor rightly points out cratium " and " Pentathlon."
that the Great Eleusinian Games are ^ Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
identical with the games celebrated tionum Graecartwi,^ No. 246, lines 46
every fourth year, which are men- sqq. ; Ch. Michel, Recueil (flnscrip-
tioned in the decree of 329 B.C. tions Grecques, No. 609. See above,
(Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum p. 61. The identification lies all the
Graecarum,^ No. 587, lines 260 sq.). nearer to hand because the inscription
^ 'Dili^nh^rger, Sylloge Inscriptionum records a decree in honour of a man
Graecamm,^ No. 587, lines 259 sqq. who had sacrificed to Demeter and
From other Attic inscriptions we learn Persephone at the Great Eleusinian
that the Eleusinian games comprised a Games, and a provision is contained in
long foot-race, a race in armour, and the decree that thehonourshouldbe pro-
a pancratium. See Dittenberger, op. claimed "at theAncestral Contest of the
cit. No. 587 note 1^1 (vol. ii. p. 313). Festival of the Threshing-floor." The
The Great Eleusinian Games also in- same Ancestral Contest at the Festival
eluded the pentathlum (Dittenberger, of the Threshing-floor is mentioned in
72
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
Triptole-
mus, the
mythical
hero of
the corn.
on the Sacred Threshing-floor of Triptolemus at Eleusis.^
If the identification could be proved, we should have
another confirmation of the tradition which connects the
games with Demeter and the corn ; for according to the
prevalent tradition it was to Triptolemus that Demeter first
revealed the secret of the corn, and it was he whom she sent
out as an itinerant missionary to impart the beneficent dis-
covery of the cereals to all mankind and to teach them to
sow the seed.^ On monuments of art, especially in vase-
paintings, he is constantly represented along with Demeter
in this capacity, holding corn-stalks in his hand and sitting
in his car, which is sometimes winged and sometimes drawn
by dragons, and from which he is said to have sowed the
seed down on the whole world as he sped through the air.^
At Eleusis victims bought with the first-fruits of the wheat
and barley were sacrificed to him as well as to Demeter and
Persephone.^ In short, if we may judge from the combined
testimony of Greek literature and art, Triptolemus was the
corn-hero first and foremost. Even beyond the limits of the
Greek world, all men, we are told, founded sanctuaries and
erected altars in his honour because he had bestowed on
them the gift of the corn.^ His very name has been
plausibly explained both in ancient and modern times as
" Thrice-ploughed " with reference to the Greek custom of
Griechische Alyikologie,^ i. 769 sgg.
another Eleusinian inscription, which
records honours decreed to a man who
had sacrificed to Demeter and Perse-
phone at the Festival of the Threshing-
floor. See 'T&cprjfiepls 'Apxai-oXoyiKri,
1884, coll. 135 sg.
1 See above, p. 61.
^ Diodorus Siculus, v. 68 ; Arrian,
Indie. 7 ; Lucian, SonDiuim, 15 ; id.,
Philopseudes, 3 ; Plato, Laws, vi. 22,
p. 782 ; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, i. 5.
2 ; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Com-
pendium, 28, p. 53, ed. C. Lang ;
Pausanias, i. 14. 2, vii. 18. 2, viii. 4.
I ; Aristides, Ehusin. vol. i. pp. 416
sq., ed. G. Dindorf ; Hyginus, Fabulae,
147, 259, 277 ; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 549
sqq. ; zi/. , Aletamorph. v. 645 sqq. ;
Servius, on Virgil, Georg. i. 19. See
also above, p. 54. As to Triptolemus,
see L. Preller, Defneier und Persephone
(Hamburg, 1837), pp. 282 sqq. ; id.,
^ C. Strube, Sludien iiber den Bil-
derh-eis von Eleusis (Leipsic, 1870),
pp. 4 sqq. ; J. Overbeck, Gnechische
Kunstmythologie, iii. (Leipsic, 1873-
1880), pp. 530 sqq. ; A. Baumeister,
Denkvidlei- des classischen Altertums,
iii. 1855^^(7. That Triptolemus sowed
the earth with corn from his car is
mentioned by Apollodorus, Bibliotheca,
i. 5- 2 ; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae
Competiditim, 28, pp. 53 sq., ed. C.
Lang; Hyginus, Fabulae, 147; and
Servius, on Virgil, Georg. i. 19.
* Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
tionum Graecarum,'- No. 20, lines 37
sqq. ; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner,
Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, ii.
(Cambridge, 1905), No. 9, p. 24.
^ Arrian, Epicteti Dissertat/ones, i.
4. 30.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 73
ploughing the land thrice a year/ and the derivation is said to
be on philological principles free from objection." In fact it
would seem as if Triptolemus, like Demeter and Persephone
themselves, were a purely mythical being, an embodiment
of the conception of the first sower. At all events in
the local Eleusinian legend, according to an eminent scholar,
who has paid special attention to Attic genealogy, " Tripto-
lemus does not, like his comrade Eumolpus or other founders
of Eleusinian priestly families, continue his kind, but without
leaving offspring who might perpetuate his priestly office, he
is removed from the scene of his beneficent activity. As he
appeared, so he vanishes again from the legend, after he has
fulfilled his divine mission." ^
However, there is no sufficient ground for identifying the Prizes of
Ancestral Contest of the Eleusinian games with the Ancestral gfjgn^tg
Contest of the Threshing-festival at Eleusis, and accordingly victors in
the connexion of the games with the corn-harvest and with sjuj^n
the corn-hero Triptolemus must so far remain uncertain. But games.
a clear trage of such a connexion may be seen in the custom
of rewarding the victors in the Eleusinian games with
measures of barley ; in the official Athenian inscription of
329 B.C., which contains the accounts of the superintendents
of Eleusis and the Treasurers of the Two Goddesses, the
amounts of corn handed over by these officers to the priests
and priestesses for the purposes of the games is exactly
specified.* This of itself is sufficient to prove that the
1 Scholiast on Homer, Iliad, xviii. said by Xenophon {Hellenica, vi. 3. 6)
483 ; L. Preller, Demeter und Perse- to have spoken of Triptolemus as
phone, p. 286 ; F. A. Paley on Hesiod, " our ancestor" (6 ijfi^Tepoi irpoyovos).
Works and Days, 460. The custom See above, p. 54. But it is possible
of ploughing the land thrice is alluded that Callias was here speaking, not as
to by Homer (Iliad, xviii. 542, Odyssey, a direct descendant of Triptolemus, but
V. 127) and Hesiod {Theogony, 971), merely as an Athenian, who naturally
and is expressly mentioned by Theo- ranked Triptolemus among the most
phrastus {Historia Plantarttm, vii. illustrious of the ancestral heroes of his
13, 6). people. Even if he intended to claim
2 So I am informed by my learned actual descent from the hero, this
friend the Rev. Professor J. H. would prove nothing as to the his-
Moulton. torical character of Triptolemus, for
^ J. Toepfifer, Attische Genealogie many Greek families boasted of being
(Berlin, 1889), pp. 138 sq. However, descended from gods.
the Eleusinian Torchbearer Callias * The prize of barley is mentioned
apparently claimed to be descended by the SchoHast on Pindar, Olynip.
from Triptolemus, for in a speech ad- ix, 150. The Scholiast on Aristides
dressed to the Lacedaemonians he is (vol.iii. pp. 55,56, ed. G. Dindorf) men-
74
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
The
Eleusinian
games
primarily
concerned
with
Demeter
and Per-
sephone.
The
Ancestral
Contest in
the games
may have
been
originally
a contest
between
the reapers
to finish
reaping.
Eleusinian games were closely connected with the worship of
Demeter and Persephone. The grain thus distributed in
prizes was probably reaped on the Rarian plain near Eleusis,
where according to the legend Triptolemus sowed the first
corn.^ Certainly we know that the barley grown on that
plain was used in sacrifices and for the baking of the sacrificial
cakes/ from which we may reasonably infer that the prizes of
barley, to which no doubt a certain sanctity attached in the
popular mind, were brought from the same holy fields. So
sacred was the Rarian plain that no dead body was allowed
to defile it. When such a pollution accidentally took place,
it was expiated by the sacrifice of a pig,^ the usual victim
employed in Greek purificatory rites.
Thus, so far as the scanty evidence at our disposal per-
mits us to judge, the Eleusinian games, like the Eleusinian
Mysteries, would seem to have been primarily concerned
with Demeter and Persephone as goddesses of the corn. At
least that is expressly affirmed by the old scholiast on
Pindar and it is borne out by the practice of rewarding the
victors with measures of barley. Perhaps the Ancestral
Contest, which may well have formed the original nucleus of
the games, was a contest between the reapers on the sacred
Rarian plain to see who should finish his allotted task before
his fellows. For success in such a contest no prize could be
more appropriate than a measure of the sacred barley which
the victorious reaper had just cut on the barley-field. In
the sequel we shall see that similar contests between reapers
have been common on the harvest fields of modern Europe,
and it will appear that such competitions are not purely
tions ears of corn as the prize without
specifying the kind of corn. In the
official Athenian inscription of 329 B.C.,
though the amount of corn distributed
in prizes both at the quadriennial and at
the biennial games is stated, we are not
told whether the corn was barley or
wheat. See Dittenberger, Sylloge In-
scriptionutn Graecarum,^ No. 587,
lines 259 s^. According to Aristides
(Eleusin. vol. i. p. 417, cd. G. Dindorf,
compare p. 168) the prize consisted of
the corn which had first appeared at
Eleusis.
1 Alarmor Parium, in Fragmenta
Historicoru7n Graecorian, ed. C. Mtiller,
i. 544. That the Rarian plain was the
first to be sown and the first to bear
crops is affirmed by Pausanias (i. 38. 6).
2 Pausanias, i. 38. 6.
3 Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
tionum Graecartwt,'^ No. 587, lines
119 sq. In the same inscription, a few
lines lower down, mention is made of
two pigs which were used in purifying
the sanctuary at Eleusis. On the pig
in Greek purificatory rites, see my notes
on Pausanias, ii. 31.8 and v. 16. 8.
I
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 75
athletic ; their aim is not simply to demonstrate the superior
strength, activity, and skill of the victors ; it is to secure for
the particular farm the possession of the blooming young
Corn-maiden of the present year, conceived as the embodiment
of the vigorous grain, and to pass on to laggard neighbours
the aged Corn-mother of the past year, conceived as an
embodiment of the effete and outworn energies of the corn.^
May it not have been so at Eleusis ? may not the reapers
have vied with each other for possession of the young corn-
spirit Persephone and for avoidance of the old corn-spirit
Demeter ? may not the prize of barley, which rewarded the
victor in the Ancestral Contest, have been supposed to house
in the ripe ears no less a personage than the Corn-maiden
Persephone herself? And if there is any truth in these con- The
jectures (for conjectures they are and nothing more), we may ^"^jg^j^*
hazard a guess as to the other Ancestral Contest which took in the
F t' 1
place at the Eleusinian Festival of the Threshing-floor. ^^^^^
Perhaps it in like manner was originally a competition between Threshing-
threshers on the sacred threshing-floor of Triptolemus to de- jj°°g ^gg^
termine who should finish threshing his allotted quantity of originally
corn before the rest. Such competitions have also been between
common, as we shall see presently, on the threshing-floors of t^e
' ^ . . i_ • 1 threshers
modern Europe, and their motive agam has not been simple to finish
emulation between sturdy swains for the reward of strength threshing.
and dexterity ; it has been a dread of being burdened with
the aged and outworn spirit of the corn conceived as present
in the bundle of corn-stalks which receives the last stroke at
threshing." We know that effigies of Demeter with corn and
poppies in her hands stood on Greek threshing-floors.^
Perhaps at the conclusion of the threshing these effigies, as
representatives of the old Corn-spirit, were passed on to
neighbours who had not yet finished threshing the corn. At
least the supposition is in harmony with modern customs
observed on the threshing-floor.
It is possible that the Eleusinian games were no more Games at
than a popular merrymaking celebrated at the close of the festivals in
harvest. This view of their character might be supported by modern
modern analogies ; for in some parts of Germany it has been
1 See below, pp. 140 s^^., 155 ^ See below, pp. 147 sgg., 221 s^.,
sqq., 164 sqq.^ compare 218 sqq. 223 sq. ^ See above, p. 43.
76 DE METER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
customary for the harvesters, when their work is done,
to engage in athletic competitions of various kinds, which
have at first sight no very obvious connexion with the
business of harvesting. For example, at Besbau near Luckau
great cakes were baked at the harvest -festival, and the
labourers, both men and women, ran races for them. He or
she who reached them first received not only a cake, but a
handkerchief or the like as a prize. Again, at Bergkirchen,
when the harvest was over, a garland was hung up and the
harvesters rode at it on horseback and tried to bring it down
with a stab or a blow as they galloped past He who
succeeded in bringing it down was proclaimed King. Again,
in the villages near Furstenwald at harvest the young men
used to fetch a fir-tree from the wood, peel the trunk, and
set it up like a mast in the middle of the village. A hand-
kerchief and other prizes were fastened to the top of the pole
and the men clambered up for them.^ Among the peasantry
of Silesia, we are told, the harvest-home broadened out into
a popular festival, in which athletic sports figured prominently.
Thus, for example, at Jarischau, in the Strehlitz district, a
scythe, a rake, a flail, and a hay-fork or pitchfork were fastened
to the top of a smooth pole and awarded as prizes, in order
of merit, to the men who displayed most agility in climbing
the pole. Younger men amused themselves with running in
sacks, high jumps, and so forth. At Prauss, near Nimptsch,
the girls ran a race in a field for aprons as prizes. In the
central parts of Silesia a favourite amusement at harvest was
a race between girls for a garland of leaves or flowers.^ Yet
it seems probable that all such sports at harvest were in
origin not mere pastimes, but that they were serious attempts
to secure in one way or another the help and blessing of the
corn-spirit. Thus in some parts of Prussia, at the close of
the rye-harvest, a few sheaves used to be left standing in the
field after all the rest of the rye had been carted home.
These sheaves were then made up into the shape of a man
and dressed out in masculine costume, and all the young
women were obliged to run a race, of which the corn-man
' A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Nord- ^ P. Drechsler, StUe, Branch vnd
detitsche Sagen, Mdrchen U77d Gehrduche Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-
(Leipsic, 1848), pp. 398, 399, 400. 1906), ii. 70 sq.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 77
was the goal. She who won the race led off the dancing in
the evening.^ Here the aim of the foot-race among the
young women is clearly to secure the corn-spirit embodied
in the last sheaf left standing on the field ; for, as we shall
see later on, the last sheaf is commonly supposed to harbour
the corn-spirit and is treated accordingly like a man or a
woman.^
If the Ancestral Contest at the Eleusinian games was, as Date
I have conjectured, a contest between the reapers on the Eieu^inian
sacred barley-field, we should have to suppose that the games games
were celebrated at barley-harvest, which in the lowlands of
Greece falls in May or even at the end of April. This theory
is in harmony with the evidence of the scholiast on Pindar,
who tells us that the Eleusinian games were celebrated after
the corn -harvest.^ No other ancient authority, so far as
I am aware, mentions at what time of the year these games
were held. Modern authorities, arguing from certain slight
and to some extent conjectural data, have variously assigned
them to Metageitnion (August) and to Boedromion
(September), and those who assign them to Boedromion
(September) are divided in opinion as to whether they
preceded or followed the Mysteries.* However, the evidence
is far too slender and uncertain to allow of any conclusions
being based on it.
But there is a serious difficulty in the way of connecting Why
the Eleusinian games with the goddesses of the corn. How games
is the quadriennial or the biennial period of the games to be intended to
reconciled with the annual growth of the crops ? Year by the annual
year the barley and the wheat are sown and reaped ; how growth of
^ ^ the crops
^ A. Kuhn, Mdrkische Sagen und view and preferred to suppose that the be held
Mdrchen (Berlin, 1843), pp. 341 sq. games preceded the Mysteries. See o^^y every
2 See below, pp. 133 sqq. Aug. Mommsen, Heortologie {Leipsic, second or
3 Scholiast on Pindar, Olymp. ix. 1864), p. 263 ; id., Feste der Stadt ^^^'f'
150, p. 228, ed, Aug. Boeckh. Athen im Altertiim (Leipsic, 1898), ^^^^
* The games are assigned to Meta- pp. 182 sqq. ; Dittenberger, Sylloge
geitnion by P. Stengel (Pauly-Wissowa, Inscriptionum Graecartim,- No. 587,
Real-Encydopddie der dassischen Alter- note ^"^ (vol. ii. pp. 313 sq.). The
tumswissenschaft, v. 2. coll. 2331 sq.) dating of the games in Metageitnion or
and to Boedromion by August Mommsen in the early part of Boedromion depends
and W. Dittenberger. The last-men- on little more than a series of con-
tioned scholar supposes that the games jectures, particularly the conjectural
immediately followed the Mysteries, restoration of an inscription and the
and August Mommsen formerly thought conjectural dating of a certain sacrifice
so too, but he afterwards changed his to Democracy.
yS DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
then could the games, held only every fourth or every second
year, have been regarded as thank-offerings for the annual
harvest ? On this view of their nature, which is the one
taken by the old scholiast on Pindar, though the harvest
was received at the hands of the Corn Goddess punctually
every year, men thanked her for her bounty only every
second year or even only every fourth year. What were
her feelings likely to be in the blank years when she
got no thanks and no games? She might naturally
resent such negligence and ingratitude and punish them
by forbidding the seed to sprout, just as she did at Eleusis
when she mourned the loss of her daughter. In short,
men could hardly expect to reap crops in years in which
they offered nothing to the Corn Goddess. That would
indeed appear to be the view generally taken by the
ancient Greeks ; for we have seen that year by year
they presented the first - fruits of the barley and the
wheat to Demeter, not merely in the solemn state ritual
of Eleusis, but also in rustic festivals held by farmers
on their threshing-floors. The pious Greek husbandman
would no doubt have been shocked and horrified at a
proposal to pay the Corn Goddess her dues only every
second or fourth year. " No offerings, no crops," he would
say to himself, and would anticipate nothing but dearth and
famine in any year when he failed to satisfy the just and
lawful demands of the divinity on whose good pleasure he
believed the growth of the corn to be directly dependent.
Accordingly we may regard it as highly probable that from
the very beginning of settled and regular agriculture in
Greece men annually propitiated the deities of the corn with
a ritual of some sort, and rendered them their dues in the
The shape of offerings of the ripe barley and wheat. Now we
M^sterks" '^"ow that the Mysteries of Eleusis were celebrated every
probably year, and accordingly, if I am right in interpreting them as
than the ^^ essentially a dramatic representation of the annual vicissi-
Eieusinian tudcs of the com performed for the purpose of quickening
™^ ■ the seed, it becomes probable that in some form or another
they were annually held at Eleusis long before the practice
arose of celebrating games there every fourth or every second
year. In short, the Eleusinian mysteries were in all prob-
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 79
ability far older than the Eleusinian games. How old they
were we cannot even guess. But when we consider that the
cultivation of barley and wheat, the two cereals specially
associated with Demeter, appears to have been practised in
prehistoric Europe from the Stone Age onwards,^ we shall
be disposed to admit that the annual performance of religi-
ous or magical rites at Eleusis for the purpose of ensuring
good crops, whether by propitiating the Corn Goddess with
offerings of first-fruits or by dramatically representing the
sowing and the growth of the corn in mythical form, prob-
ably dates from an extremely remote antiquity.
But in order to clear our ideas on this subject it is Quad-
desirable to ascertain, if possible, the reason for holding the "g^^Jfof
Eleusinian games at intervals of two or four years. The many of
reason for holding a harvest festival and thanksgiving every Lmerof
year is obvious enough ; but why hold games only every Greece,
second or every fourth year ? The reason for such limita-
tions is by no means obvious on the face of them, especially
if the growth of the crops is deemed dependent on the
celebration. In order to find an answer to this question it
may be well at the outset to confine our attention to the
Great Eleusinian Games, which were celebrated only every
fourth year. That these were the principal games appears
not only from their name, but from the testimony of Aris-
totle, or at least of the author of The Constitution of Athens,
who notices only the quadriennial or, as in accordance with
Greek idiom he calls it, the penteteric celebration of the
games.^ Now the custom of holding games at intervals of
1 A. de Candolle, Origin of Culti- (Oxford, 1909), p. 362.
vated Plants (London, 1884), pp. 354 ^ Aristotle, Constitution of Athens,
^<l-i 367 sqq. ; R. Munro, The Lake- 54, where the quadriennial (penteteric)
dwellings of Europe (London, Paris, festival of the Eleusinian Games is
and Melbourne, 1890), pp. 497 sqq. ; mentioned along with the quadriennial
O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indoger- festivals of the Panathenaica, the Delia,
manischen Altertumskunde (Strasburg, the Brauronia, and the Heraclea. The
1901), pp. 8 sqq. ; id., Sprachverglei- biennial (trieteric) festival of the Eleu-
chtmg icnd Urgeschichte (Jena, 1906- sinian Games is mentioned only in the
1907), ii. 185 sqq. ; H. Hirt, Die inscription of 329 B.C. (Dittenberger,
Indogermane?t (Strasburg, 1905-1907), Sylloge Inscriptionutn Graecarmn,^'iio.
i. 254 sqq., 273 sq., 276 sqq., ii. 640 587, lines 259 sq.). As to the iden-
sqq. ; M. Much, Die Heimat der tity of the Great Eleusinian Games
Indogermanen (Jena and Berlin, 1904), with the quadriennial games see Ditten-
pp. 221 sqq. ; T. E. Peet, The Stone berger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Grae-
and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily carum. No. 246 note ^ No. 587 note i"'.
8o
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Old octen-
nial period
of the
Pythian
and prob-
ably of the
Olympian
games.
The octen-
nial cycle
was in-
stituted by
the Greeks
at a very
early era
for the
purpose of
harmonis-
ing solar
and lunar
time.
four years was very common in Greece ; to take only a few
conspicuous examples the Olympic games at Olympia, the
Pythian games at Delphi, the Panathenaic games at Athens,
and the Eleutherian games at Plataea ^ were all celebrated
at quadriennial or, as the Greeks called them, penteteric
periods ; and at a later time when Augustus instituted, or
rather renewed on a more splendid scale, the games at
Actium to commemorate his great victory, he followed a well-
established Greek precedent by ordaining that they should
be quadriennial.^ Still later the "emperor Hadrian instituted
quadriennial games at Mantinea in honour of his dead
favourite Antinous.^ But in regard to the two greatest of
all the Greek games, the Olympian and the Pythian, I have
shewn reasons for thinking that they were originally cele-
brated at intervals of eight instead of four years ; certainly
this is attested for the Pythian games,* and the mode of
calculating the Olympiads by alternate periods of fifty and
forty-nine lunar months,^ which added together make up
eight solar years, seems to prove that the Olympic cycle of
four years was really based on a cycle of eight years, from
which it is natural to infer that in the beginning the
Olympic, like the Pythian, games may have been octennial
instead of quadriennial.^ Now we know from the testimony
of the ancients themselves that the Greeks instituted the
eight-years' cycle for the purpose of harmonising solar and
lunar time.^ They regulated their calendar primarily by ob-
servation of the moon rather than of the sun ; their months
were lunar, and their ordinary year consisted of twelve lunar
1 As to the Plataean games see
Plutarch, Aristides, 21 ; Pausanias,
ix. 2. 6.
2 Strabo, vii. 7. 6, p. 325 ; Sue-
tonius, Augustus, 18 ; Die Cassias, li.
I ; Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire
des Antiquitis Grecqties et Romaines,
s.v. " Actia."
^ Pausanias, viii. 9. 8.
* Scholiast on Pindar, Fyth., Argu-
ment, p. 298, ed. Aug. Boeckh ;
Censorinus, De die natali, xviii. 6.
According to the scholiast on Pindar
(I.e.) the change from the octennial to
the quadriennial period was occasioned
by the nymphs of Parnassus bringing
ripe fruits in their hands to Apollo,
after he had slain the dragon at Delphi.
^ Scholiast on Pindar, Oly?np. iii. 35
(20), p. 98, ed. Aug. Boeckh. Compare
Boeckh's commentary on Pindar (vol.
iii. p. 138 of his edition) ; L. Ideler,
Handbuch der mathematischen und
technischen Chronologic, i. 366 sq., ii.
605 sqq.
6 See The Dyittg God, chapter ii.
§ 4, "Octennial Tenure of the King-
ship," especially pp. 68 sq., 80, Sg sq.
^ Geminus, Elementa Astrotiomiae,
viii. 25 sqq., pp. IIO sqq., ed. C.
Manitius (Leipsic, 1898) ; Censorinus,
De die natali, xviii. 2-6.
s
a DE METER AND PERSEPHONE 8i
months. But the solar year of three hundred and sixty-five
and a quarter days exceeds the lunar year of twelve lunar
months or three hundred and fifty-four days by eleven and a
quarter days, so that in eight solar years the excess amounts
to ninety days or roughly three lunar months. Accord-
ingly the Greeks equated eight solar years to eight lunar
years of twelve months each by intercalating three lunar
months of thirty days each in the octennial cycle ; they
intercalated one lunar month in the third year of the cycle,
a second lunar month in the fifth year, and a third lunar
month in the eighth year.^ In this way they, so to say,
made the sun and moon keep time together by reckon-
ing ninety-nine lunar months as equivalent to eight solar
years ; so that if, for example, the full moon coincided with
the summer solstice in one year, it coincided with it again
after the revolution of the eight years' cycle, but not before.
The equation was indeed not quite exact, and in order to
render it so the Greeks afterwards found themselves obliged,
first, to intercalate three days every sixteen years, and, next,
to omit one intercalary month in every period of one hundred
and sixty years.^ But these corrections were doubless refine-
ments of a later age ; they may have been due to the
astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus, or to Cleostratus of Tenedos,
who were variously, but incorrectly, supposed to have insti-
tuted the octennial cycle.^ There are strong grounds for
holding that in its simplest form the octennial cycle of
ninety-nine lunar months dates from an extremely remote
antiquity in Greece ; that it was in fact, as a well-informed
Greek writer tell us,* the first systematic attempt to bring
solar and the lunar time into harmony. Indeed, if the
1 Geminus, I.e. or fifth century B.C., cannot be dis-
2 Geminus, Eleinenta Astrouoi/iiae, missed so summarily ; but for tlie
viii. 36-41. reasons given in the text he can hardly
3 Censorinus, De die natali, xviii. 5. have done more than suggest correc-
As Eudoxus flourished in the fourth tions or improvements of the ancient
century B.C., some sixty or seventy octennial cycle.
years after Meton, who introduced the ^ Geminus, Eleinenta Astronomiae,
nineteen years' cycle to remedy the viii. 27. With far less probability
defects of the octennial cycle, the Censorinus {De die natali, xviii. 2-4)
claim of Eudoxus to have instituted supposes that the octennial cycle was
the latter cycle may at once be put out produced by the successive duplication
of court. The claim of Cleostratus, of biennial and quadriennial cycles,
who seems to have lived in the sixth See below, pp. 86 sq.
PT. V. VOL. I G
82 DE METER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
Olympiads were calculated, as they appear to have been, on
the eight years' cycle, this of itself suffices to place the origin
of the cycle not later than yy6 B.C., the year with which
the reckoning by Olympiads begins. And when we bear in
mind the very remote period from which, judged by the
wonderful remains of Mycenae, Tiryns, Cnossus and other
cities, civilisation in Greek lands appears to date, it seems
reasonable to suppose that the octennial cycle, based as it
was on very simple observations, for which nothing but good
eyes and almost no astronomical knowledge was necessary,^
may have been handed down among the inhabitants of these
countries from ages that preceded by many centuries, possibly
by thousands of years, the great period of Greek literature
and art. The supposition is confirmed by the traces which
the octennial cycle has left of itself in certain ancient
Greek customs and superstitions, particularly by the evi-
dence which points to the conclusion that at two of the
oldest seats of monarchy in Greece, namely Cnossus and
Sparta, the king's tenure of office was formerly limited to
eight years.^
The motive We are informed, and may readily believe, that the
tut'^'^^A "motive which led the Greeks to adopt the eight years' cycle
eight years' was religious rather than practical or scientific: their aim
refeiour ^^^^ "°^ ^° much to cnsurc the punctual despatch of business
not prac- or to solvc an abstract problem in astronomy, as to ascertain
scientific. ^^^ exact days on which they ought to sacrifice to the gods.
For the Greeks regularly employed lunar months in their
reckonings,^ and accordingly if they had dated their religious
festivals simply by the number of the month and the day of
1 L. Ideler, Handbuch der viatlie- the wide diffusion of the octennial
matischen und technischen Chronologic, cycle in Greece are rightly maintained
ii. 605. by A. Schmidt {Handbuch der grie-
2 The Dying God, pp. 58 sqq. c/iischen Chrono/ogie, Jena, 1S8S, pp. 61
Speaking of the octennial cycle Cen- si/ij. ), who suggests that the cycle may
sorinus observes that " Ob hoc in have owed something to the astronomy
Graecia multae religiones hoc intervallo of the Egyptians, with whom the in-
temporis suninia caerifnonia cohmtttr " habitants of Greece are known to
{De die natali, xviii. 6). Compare have had relations from a very early
L. Ideler, op. cit. ii. 605 sq. ; G. F. time.
Unger, " Zeitrechnung der Griechen 3 Aratus, Phaenomefia, 733 sqq. ;
und Romer," in I wan Miiller's Hand- L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathenia-
biich der classischen Altertumswissen- tischen und technischen Chronologie, i.
schaft, i.2 732 sq. The great age and 255 sq.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 83
the month, the excess of eleven and a quarter days of the
solar over the lunar year would have had the effect of caus-
ing the festivals gradually to revolve throughout the whole
circle of the seasons, so that in time ceremonies which
properly belonged to winter would come to be held in
summer, and on the contrary ceremonies which were only
appropriate to summer would come to be held in winter.
To avoid this anomaly, and to ensure that festivals dated by
lunar months should fall at fixed or nearly fixed points in
the solar year, the Greeks adopted the octennial cycle by
the simple expedient of intercalating three lunar months in
every period of eight years. In doing so they acted, as one
of their writers justly pointed out, on a principle precisely
the reverse of that followed by the ancient Egyptians, who
deliberately regulated their religious festivals by a purely
lunar calendar for the purpose of allowing them gradually to
revolve throughout the whole circle of the seasons.^
Thus at an early stage of culture the regulation of the in early
calendar is largely an affair of religion : it is a means of re^^iation
maintaining the established relations between gods and men of the
on a satisfactory footing ; and in public opinion the great largely an
evil of a disordered calendar is not so much that it disturbs =^^''' of
... , . - , . , , religion.
and disarranges the ordmary course of busmess and the
various transactions of civil life, as that it endangers the
welfare or even the existence both of individuals and of
the community by interrupting their normal intercourse with
those divine powers on whose favour men believe themselves
to be absolutely dependent. Hence in states which take
this view of the deep religious import of the calendar its
superintendence is naturally entrusted to priests rather than
to astronomers, because the science of astronomy is regarded
merely as ancillary to the deeper mysteries of theology.
For example, at Rome the method of determining the
months and regulating the festivals was a secret which the
pontiffs for ages jealously guarded from the profane vulgar ;
and in consequence of their ignorance and incapacity the
calendar fell into confusion and the festivals were celebrated
out of their natural seasons, until the greatest of all the
Roman pontiffs, Julius Caesar, remedied the confusion and
1 Geminus, Elementa Astronomiae, viii. I5-45'
84
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
The quad-
riennial
period of
games and
festivals in
Greece was
probably
arrived at
by bisect-
ing an
older
octennial
period.
placed the calendar of the civilised world on the firm founda-
tion on which, with little change, it stands to this day.^
On the whole, then, it appears probable that the octennial
cycle, based on considerations of religion and on elementary
observations of the two great luminaries, dated from a very
remote period among the ancient Greeks ; if they did not
bring it with them when they migrated southwards from the
oakwoods and beechwoods of Central Europe, they may
well have taken it over from their civilised predecessors of
different blood and different language whom they found
leading a settled agricultural life on the lands about the
Aegean Sea. Now we have seen reasons to hold that the
two most famous of the great Greek games, the Pythian and
the Olympian, were both based on the ancient cycle of
eight years, and that the quadriennial period at which they
were regularly celebrated in historical times was arrived at
by a subdivision of the older octennial cycle. It is hardly
rash, therefore, to conjecture that the quadriennial period in
general, regarded as the normal period for the celebration of
great games and festivals, was originally founded on element-
ary religious and astronomical considerations of the same
kind, that is, on a somewhat crude attempt to harmonise
the discrepancies of solar and lunar time and thereby to
ensure the continued favour of the gods. It is, indeed,
certain or probable that some of these quadriennial festivals
were celebrated in honour of the dead ; ^ but there seems to
be nothing in the beliefs or customs of the ancient Greeks
concerning the dead which would suggest a quadriennial
period as an appropriate one for propitiating the ghosts of
the departed. At first sight it is different with the octennial
period ; for according to Pindar, the souls of the dead who
had been purged of their guilt by an abode of eight years
in the nether world were born again on earth in the ninth
year as glorious kings, athletes, and sages.^ Now if this
belief in the reincarnation of the dead after eight years were
^ Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 15. 9
sqq. ; Livy, ix. 46. 5 ; Valerius Maxi-
mus, ii. 5. 2 ; Cicero, Pro Muraena,
xi. 25 ; id., De legibus, ii. 12. 29 ;
Suetonius, Divus lulius, 40 ; Plutarch,
Caesar^ 59.
2 See The Dying God, pp. 92
sqq.
3 Plato, Meno, p. 81 A-C ; Pindar,
ed. Aug. Boeckh, vol. iii. pp. 623 sq.,
Frag. 98. See further The Dying God,
pp. 69 iq.
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 85
primitive, it might certainly furnish an excellent reason for
honouring the ghosts of great men at their graves every
eight years in order to facilitate their rebirth into the world.
Yet the period of eight years thus rigidly applied to the life
of disembodied spirits appears too arbitrary and conventional
to be really primitive, and we may suspect that in this
application it was nothing but an inference drawn from the
old octennial cycle, which had been instituted for the purpose
of reconciling solar and lunar time. If that was so, it will
follow that the quadriennial period of funeral games was,
like the similar period of other religious festivals, obtained
through the bisection of the octennial cycle, and hence that
it was ultimately derived from astronomical considerations
rather than from any beliefs touching a quadriennial revolu-
tion in the state of the dead. Yet in historical times it may
well have happened that these considerations were forgotten,
and that games and festivals were instituted at quadriennial
intervals, for example at Plataea ^ in honour of the slain,
at Actium to commemorate the great victory, and at
Mantinea in honour of Antinous,^ without any conscious
reference to the sun and moon, and merely because that
period had from time immemorial been regarded as the
proper and normal one for the celebration of certain solemn
religious rites.
If we enquire why the Greeks so often bisected the old The
octennial period into two quadriennial periods for purposes [,'jse°t'j'n/°'
of religion, the answer can only be conjectural, for no the old
positive information appears to be given us on the subject pedodTnto
by ancient writers. Perhaps they thought that eight years two quad-
was too long a time to elapse between the solemn services, periods
and that it was desirable to propitiate the deities at shorter may have
1 -r» • • Mil !• • 1 11 t)een partly
mtervals. But it is possible that political as well as religious,
religious motives may have operated to produce the change. P^"^y
We have seen reason to think that at two of the oldest seats
of monarchy in Greece, namely Cnossus and Sparta, kings
formerly held office for periods of eight years only, after
which their sovereignty either terminated or had to be formally
renewed. Now with the gradual growth of that democratic
1 Plutarch, Aristides, 21 ; Pausanias, ix. 2. 6.
^ See above, p. 80.
86 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE chap.
sentiment, which ultimately dominated Greek political life,
men would become more and more jealous of the kingly power
and would seek to restrict it within narrower limits, and one
of the most obvious means of doing so was to shorten the
king's tenure of office. We know that this was done at
Athens, where the dynasty of the Medontids was reduced
from the rank of monarchs for life to that of magistrates
holding office for ten years only.^ It is possible that else-
where the king's reign was cut down from eight years to
four years ; and if I am right in my explanation of the
origin of the Olympic games this political revolution actu-
ally took place at Olympia, where the victors in the chariot-
race would seem at first to have personated the Sun-god
and perhaps held office in the capacity of divine kings
during the intervals between successive celebrations of the
games." If at Olympia and elsewhere the games were of
old primarily contests in which the king had personally to
take part for the purpose of attesting his bodily vigour and
therefore his capacity for office, the repetition of the test at
intervals of four instead of eight years might be regarded
as furnishing a better guarantee of the maintenance of the
king's efficiency and thereby of the general welfare, which
in primitive society is often supposed to be sympathetically
bound up with the health and strength of the king.
The bien- But while many of the great Greek games were celebrated
orsome ° ^^ intervals of four years, others, such as the Nemean and the
Greek Isthmian, were celebrated at intervals of two years only ; and
havTbeen^ just as the quadriennial period seems to have been arrived at
obtained through a bisection of the octennial period, so we may surmise
ing the that the biennial period was produced by a bisection of the
quadrien- quadriennial period. This was the view which the admirable
nial period. ,
modern chronologer L. Ideler took of the origin of the quad-
riennial and biennial festivals respectively,^ and it appears far
more probable than the contrary opinion of the ancient chrono-
loger Censorinus, that the quadriennial period was reached by
doubling the biennial, and the octennial period by doubling
1 Pausanias, iv. 5. 10 ; compare 2 See The Dying God, pp. 89-
Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, iii. 92.
I ; G. Gilbert, Handbuch der ^ l Ideler, Handbuch der mathe-
griechischen Staatsalterthumer, i.2 matischen und technischen Chronologic,
(Leipsic, 1893) pp. 122 sq. ii. 606 sq.
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 87
the quadriennial.^ The theory of Censorinus was that the
Greeks started with a biennial cycle of twelve and thirteen
lunar months alternately in successive years for the purpose
of harmonising solar and lunar time." But as the cycle so
produced exceeds the true solar time by seven and a half
days,^ the discrepancy which it leaves between the two
great celestial clocks, the sun and moon, was too glaring to
escape the observation even of simple farmers, who would
soon have been painfully sensible that the times were out of
joint, if they had attempted to regulate the various operations
of the agricultural year by reference to so very inaccurate an
almanac. It is unlikely, therefore, that the Greeks ever
made much use of a biennial cycle of this sort.
Now to apply these conclusions to the Eleusinian games, Appika-
which furnished the starting-point for the preceding dis- V°" "'^ '^^
° ^ jr & foregoing
cussion. Whatever the origin and meaning of these games conclusion
may have been, we may surmise that the quadriennial and Kieusinian
biennial periods at which they were held were originally games.
derived from astronomical considerations, and that they had
nothing to do directly either with the agricultural cycle,
which is annual, nor with the worship of the dead, which can
scarcely be said to have any cycle at all, unless indeed it be
an annual one. In other words, neither the needs of
husbandry nor the superstitions relating to ghosts furnish
any natural explanation of the quadriennial and biennial
periods of the Eleusinian games, and to discover such an
explanation we are obliged to fall back on astronomy or, to
be more exact, on that blend of astronomy with religion
which appears to be mainly responsible for such Greek
festivals as exceed a year in their period. To admit this is
not to decide the question whether the Eleusinian games
were agricultural or funereal in character ; but it is im-
plicitly to acknowledge that the games were of later origin
than the annual ceremonies, including the Great Mysteries,
which were designed to propitiate the deities of the corn
for the very simple and practical purpose of ensuring good
crops within the year. For it cannot but be that men
1 Censorinus, De die natali, xviii. ^ L. Ideler, Handbuch der niathe-
2-4. matiscken und technischen Chronologie,
' Censoiinus, De die Hawaii, xviii. 2. i. 270.
88
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
Varro on
the rites of
Eleusis.
The close
resem-
blance
between
the artistic
types of
Demeter
and Per-
sephone
observed and laid their account with the annual changes of
the seasons, especially as manifested by the growth and
maturity of the crops, long before they attempted to recon-
cile the discrepancies of solar and lunar time by a series of
observations extending over several years.
On the whole, then, if, ignoring theories, we adhere to
the evidence of the ancients themselves in regard to the
rites of Eleusis, including under that general term the
Great Mysteries, the games, the Festival before Ploughing
{proerosia), the Festival of the Threshing-floor, the Green
Festival, the Festival of the Cornstalks, and the offerings
of first-fruits, we shall probably incline to agree with the
most learned of ancient antiquaries, the Roman Varro,
who, to quote Augustine's report of his opinion, " inter-
preted the whole of the Eleusinian mysteries as relating
to the corn which Ceres (Demeter) had discovered, and
to Proserpine (Persephone), whom Pluto had carried off
from her. And Proserpine herself, he said, signifies the
fecundity of the seeds, the failure of which at a certain time
had caused the earth to mourn for barrenness, and therefore
had given rise to the opinion that the daughter of Ceres, that
is, fecundity itself, had been ravished by Pluto and detained
in the nether world ; and when the dearth had been
publicly mourned and fecundity had returned once more,
there was gladness at the return of Proserpine and solemn
rites were instituted accordingly. After that he says,"
continues Augustine, reporting Varro, " that many things
were taught in her mysteries which had no reference but to
the discovery of the corn." ^
Thus far I have for the most part assumed an identity
of nature between Demeter and Persephone, the divine
mother and daughter personifying the corn in its double
aspect of the seed-corn of last year and the ripe ears of
this, and I pointed out that this view of the substantial
unity of mother and daughter is borne out by their portraits
1 Augustine, De civitate Dei, vii. 20. Ce7-es iiivenit, et ad Proserpinat7i,
'■'■In Cereris ante/n sacris praedi- guam rapiejile Oreo perdidit. Ethane
cantur ilia Eleusinia, quae apud ipsam dicit significare foeciinditatcm
Athenieiises nobilissi?na fiierunt. De seminum. . . . Dicit delude multa in
qulbjis iste [ Varrd\ nihil interpret at itr, mysteriis ejus tradi, quae nisi ad
nisi quod at tine t ad fruinentuni, quod fruguni invent ionem non pertineant."
II DE METER AND PERSEPHONE 89
in Greek art, which are often so aHke as to be indistinguish- militates
able. Such a close resemblance between the artistic types theorrthal
of Demeter and Persephone militates decidedly against the the two
c^oddcssGs
view that the two goddesses are mythical embodiments of personified
two thins^s so different and so easily distinguishable from '^o things
, , , , , . , . , . so different
each other as the earth and the vegetation which springs as the
from it. Had Greek artists accepted that view of Demeter ^f^^"^ ^"'^
^ . the corn.
and Persephone, they could surely have devised types of
them which would have brought out the deep distinction
between the goddesses. That they were capable of doing
so is proved by the simple fact that they regularly repre-
sented the Earth Goddess by a type which differed widely
both from that of Demeter and from that of Persephone.^
Not only so, but they sometimes set the two types of the
Earth Goddess and the Corn Goddess (Demeter) side by
side as if on purpose to demonstrate their difference. Thus
at Patrae there was a sanctuary of Demeter, in which she
and Persephone were portrayed standing, while Earth was
represented by a seated image ; " and on a vase-painting
the Earth Goddess is seen appropriately emerging from
the ground with a horn of plenty and an infant in her
uplifted arms, while Demeter and Persephone, scarcely dis-
tinguishable from each other, stand at full height behind her,
looking down at her half-buried figure, and Triptolemus in
his wheeled car sits directly above her,^ In this instructive
picture, accordingly, we see grouped together the principal
personages in the myth of the corn : the Earth Goddess, the
two Goddesses of the old and the new corn, and the hero
who is said to have been sent forth by the Corn Goddess
to sow the seed broadcast over the earth. Such represen-
tations seem to prove that the artists clearly distinguished
Demeter from the Earth Goddess.* And if Demeter did
^ A. Baumeister, Denkmdkr des do not know how the goddesses were
dassischen Altertums, i. 577 sq. ; represented.
Drexler, s.v. " Gaia," in W. H. ^ l. r. Farnell, The Cults of^ the
Roscher's Lexikon der griech. ttiid rout. Greek States, iii. 256 with plate xxi. b.
Mythologie, i. 1574 sqq. ; L. R. Far- •» The distinction between Demeter
nell, The Cults of the Greek States, (Ceres) and the Earth Goddess is clearly
iii. (Oxford, 1907) p. 27. marked by Ovid, Fasti, iv. 673 sq. :
2 Pausanias, vii. 21. ir. At " Officium commune Ceres et Terra
Athens there was a sanctuary of Earth ttientur ;
the Nursing - Mother and of Green Haec praebet causam frngibus,
Demeter (Pausanias, i. 22. 3), but we ilia locum."
90
DE METER AND PERSEPHONE
As god-
desses of
the corn
Demeter
and Per-
sephone
came to be
associated
with the
ideas of
death and
resurrec-
tion.
not personify the earth, can there be any reasonable doubt
that, Hke her daughter, she personified the corn which was
so commonly called by her name from the time of Homer
downwards ? The essential identity of mother and daughter
is suggested, not only by the close resemblance of their
artistic types, but also by the official title of " the Two
Goddesses " which was regularly applied to them in the great
sanctuary at Eleusis without any specification of their in-
dividual attributes and titles,^ as if their separate individu-
alities had almost merged in a single divine substance.^
Surveying the evidence as a whole, we may say that
from the myth of Demeter and Persephone, from their ritual,
from their representations in art, from the titles which they
bore, from the offerings of first-fruits which were presented
to them, and from the names applied to the cereals, we are
fairly entitled to conclude that in the mind of the ordinary
Greek the two goddesses were essentially personifications of
the corn, and that in this germ the whole efflorescence of
their religion finds implicitly its explanation. But to main-
tain this is not to deny that in the long course of religious
evolution high moral and spiritual conceptions were grafted
on this simple original stock and blossomed out into fairer
flowers than the bloom of the barley and the wheat.
Above all, the thought of the seed buried in the earth in
order to spring up to new and higher life readily suggested
a comparison with human destiny, and strengthened the
hope that for man too the grave may be but the beginning of
a better and happier existence in some brighter v/orld unknown.
This simple and natural reflection seems perfectly sufficient
to explain the association of the Corn Goddess at Eleusis
with the mystery of death and the hope of a blissful
immortality. For that the ancients regarded initiation in
^ Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscrip-
tionum Graecaruni,^ Nos. 20, 408,
411, 587, 646, 647, 652, 720, 789.
Compare the expression duhvvfioL diai,
applied to them by Euripides, Fkoe-
nissae, 683, with the Scholiast's note.
2 The substantial identity of
Demeter and Persephone has been
recognised by some modern scholars,
though their interpretations of the
myth do not altogether agree with the
one adopted in the text. See F.
G. Welcker, Griechische Gdtterlehre
(Gottingen, 1857 -1862), ii. 532; L.
Preller, in Pauly's Realeiicydopddie der
classischen Aliertumswissenschaft, vi.
106 sq. ; F. Lenormant, in Daremberg
et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Atttiquitis
Grecqiies et Roniaines, i. 2. pp. 1047
sqq.
s
II DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE 91
the Eleusini'an mysteries as a key to unlock the gates of
Paradise appears to be proved by the allusions which well-
informed writers among them drop to the happiness in store
for the initiated hereafter.^ No doubt it is easy for us to
discern the flimsiness of the logical foundation on which such
high hopes were built.- But drowning men clutch at straws,
and we need not wonder that the Greeks, like ourselves,
with death before them and a great love of life in their
hearts, should not have stopped to weigh with too nice a
hand the arguments that told for and against the prospect
of human immortality. The reasoning that satisfied Saint
Paul ^ and has brought comfort to untold thousands of
sorrowing Christians, standing by the deathbed or the
open grave of their loved ones, was good enough to pass
muster with ancient pagans, when they too bowed their
heads under the burden of grief, and, with the taper of
life burning low in the socket, looked forward into the
darkness of the unknown. Therefore we do no indignity
to the myth of Demeter and Persephone — one of the few
myths in which the sunshine and clarity of the Greek
genius are crossed by the shadow and mystery of death —
when we trace its origin to some of the most familiar, yet
eternally affecting aspects of nature, to the melancholy
gloom and decay of autumn and to the freshness, the bright-
ness, and the verdure of spring.
^ Homeric Hynnn to Demeter, 480 poor butterfly argument on the wheel
sqq. ; Pindar, quoted by Clement of of his inflexible logic. The cruel act,
Alexandria, 5/row. iii. 3. 17, p. 518, ed. while it proves the hardness of the
Potter; Sophocles, quoted by Plutarch, professor's head, says little for his
De audie7idis poetis, 4 ; Isocrates, knowledge of human nature, which
Panegyricus, 6 ; Cicero, De legibus, does not always act in strict accordance
ii. 14. 36 ; Aristides, Eleusin. vol. i. with the impulse of the syllogistic
p. 421, ed. G. Dindorf. machinery. See Erwin Rohde,
Psyche^ (Ttibingen and Leipsic, 1903),
- A learned German professor has i. 290 sqq.
thought it worth while to break the ^ j Corinthians xv. 35 sqq.
CHAPTER III
MAGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GAMES IN PRIMITIVE
AGRICULTURE
Games In the preceding chapter we saw that among the rites
played as ^^ Elcusis wcrc Comprised certain athletic sports, such as
magical '^ _ r '
ceremonies foot-raccs, horse-races, leaping, wrestling, and boxing, the
the^CTwvth victors in which were rewarded with measures of barley
of the distributed among them by the priests/ These sports the
*^'^°^^' ancients themselves associated with the worship of Demeter
and Persephone, the goddesses of the corn, and strange as
such an association may seem to us, it is not without its
analogy among the harvest customs of modern European
peasantry,^ But to discover clear cases of games practised for
the express purpose of promoting the growth of the crops, we
must turn to more primitive agricultural communities than
the Athenians of classical antiquity or the peoples of modern
Europe. Such communities may be found at the present
day among the savage tribes of Borneo and New Guinea,
The who subsist mainly by tilling the ground. Among them we
ofTemrai ^^^^ ^^^ Kayans or Bahaus of central Borneo as typical.
Borneo, a They are essentially an agricultural people, and devote them-
agricuiturai selves mainly to the cultivation of rice, which furnishes their
people. staple food ; all other products of the ground are of sub-
ordinate importance. Hence agriculture, we are told,
dominates the whole life of these tribes : their year is the
year of the cultivation of the rice, and they divide it into
various periods which are determined by the conditions
necessary for the tilling of the fields and the manipulation
^ See above, p. 71, with the footnote''.
^ See above, pp. 74 si/i/.
CHAP. Ill GAMES IN PRIMITIvi AGRICULTURE
93
of the rice. "In tribes whose thoughts are so much en-
grossed by agriculture it is no wonder that they associate
with it their ideas of the powers which rule them for good
or evil. The spirit- world stands in close connexion with
the agriculture of the Bahaus; without the consent of the
spirits no work in the fields may be undertaken. Moreover,
all the great popular festivals coincide with the different
periods of the cultivation of the rice. As the people are in
an unusual state of affluence after harvest, all family festivals
which require a large outlay are for practical reasons deferred
till the New Year festival at the end of harvest. The two
mighty spirits Amei Awi and his wife Buring Une, who,
according to the belief of the Kayans, live in a world under
ground, dominate the whole of the tillage and determine
the issue of the harvest in great measure by the behaviour
of the owner of the land, not so much by his moral conduct,
as by the offerings he has made to the spirits and the atten-
tion he has paid to their warnings. An important part in
agriculture falls to the chief : at the festivals he has, in the
name of the whole tribe, to see to it that the prescribed con-
jurations are carried out by the priestesses. All religious The sacred
ceremonies required for the cultivation of the ground take yf^"^*^'^^,.,
place in a small rice-field specially set apart for that pur- on which
pose, called luma lali: here the chief's family ushers in ^^^ '■*^i'g'?"s
*■ ' J ceremonies
every fresh operation in the cultivation of the rice, such as requisite
sowing, hoeing, and reaping : the solemn actions there per- ture^frT"
formed have a symbolical significance."^ performed.
Not only the chief's family among the Kayans has such Cere-
a consecrated field ; every family possesses one of its own. "^°erved
These little fields are never cultivated for the sake of their at the
produce : they serve only as the scene of religious ceremonies fesu'vfi,
and of those symbolical operations of agriculture which are
afterwards performed in earnest on the real rice -fields.^
For example, at the festival before sowing a priestess sows
some rice on the consecrated field of the chief's family and
then calls on a number of young men and girls to com-
plete the work ; the young men then dig holes in the ground
with digging-sticks, and the girls come behind them and
1 A. \V. Nieuwenhuis, Quer diurk Borneo (l^eyden, 1904-1907), i. 156^17.
" A. W^. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i. 164.
94
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
Taboos
observed
at the
sowing
festival.
Games
played at
the sowing
festival.
plant the rice-seed in the holes. Afterwards the priestesses
lay offerings of food, wrapt in banana-leaves, here and there
on the holy field, while they croon prayers to the spirits in
soft tones, which are half drowned in the clashing music of
the gongs. On another day women gather all kinds of edible
leaves in their gardens and fields, boil them in water, and
then sprinkle the water on the consecrated rice-field. But
on that and other days of the festival the people attend also
to their own wants, banqueting on a favourite species of rice
and other dainties. The ceremonies connected with sowing
last several weeks, and during this time certain taboos have
to be observed by the people. Thus on the first day of the
festival the whole population, except the very old and the
very young, must refrain from bathing ; after that there
follows a period of rest for eight nights, during which the
people may neither work nor hold intercourse with their
neighbours. On the tenth day the prohibition to bathe is
again enforced ; and during the eight following days the
great rice-field of the village, where the real crops are raised,
is sowed.^ The reason for excluding strangers from the
village at these times is a religious one. It is a fear lest
the presence of strangers might frighten the spirits or put
them in a bad humour, and so defeat the object of the
ceremony ; for, while the religious ceremonies which accom-
pany the cultivation of the rice differ somewhat from each
other in different tribes, the ideas at the bottom of them,
we are told, are everywhere the same : the aim always is to
appease and propitiate the souls of the rice and the other
spirits by sacrifices of all sorts.^
However, during this obligatory period of seclusion and
rest the Kayans employ themselves in various pursuits,
which, though at first sight they might seem to serve no
other purpose than that of recreation, have really in the
minds of the people a much deeper significance. For
1 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch
Borneo, i. 164-167.
2 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i.
163. The motive assigned for the ex-
clusion of strangers at the sowing festi-
val applies equally to all religious rites.
" In all religious observances," says
Dr. Nieuwenhuis, "the Kayans fear
the presence of strangers, because these
latter might frighten and annoy the
spirits which are invoked." On the
periods of seclusion and quiet observed
in connexion with agriculture by the
Kayans of Sarawak, see W. H. Fur-
ness. Home-life of Bo7-neo Head-hunters
(Philadelphia, 1902), pp. 160 sqq.
Ill GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 95
example, at this time the men often play at spinning
tops. The tops are smooth, flat pieces of wood weighing
several pounds. Each man tries to spin his own top so that
it knocks down those of his neighbours and continues itself
to revolve triumphantly. New tops are commonly carved
for the festival. The older men sometimes use heavy tops
of iron-wood. Again, every evening the young men assemble
in the open space before the chief's house and engage in
contests of strength and agility, while the women watch
them from the long gallery or verandah of the house.
Another popular pastime during the festival of sowing is a Masquer-
masquerade. It takes place on the evening of the tenth day, sowjno-
the day on which, for the second time, the people are for- festival.
bidden to bathe. The scene of the performance is again
the open space in front of the chief's house. As the day
draws towards evening, the villagers begin to assemble in the
gallery or verandah of the house in order to secure good
places for viewing the masquerade. All the maskers at
these ceremonies represent evil spirits. The men wear
ugly wooden masks on their faces, and their bodies are
swathed in masses of slit banana leaves so as to imitate
the hideous faces and hairy bodies of the demons. The
young women wear on their heads cylindrical baskets, which
conceal their real features, while they exhibit to the spectators
grotesque human faces formed by stitches on pieces of white
cotton, which are fastened to the baskets. On the occasion
when Dr. Nieuwenhuis witnessed the ceremony, the first to
appear on the scene were some men wearing wooden masks
and helmets and so thickly wrapt in banana leaves that they
looked like moving masses of green foliage. They danced
silently, keeping time to the beat of the gongs. They were
followed by other figures, some of whom executed war-
dances ; but the weight of their leafy envelope was such
that they soon grew tired, and though they leaped high,
they uttered none of the wild war-whoops which usually
accompany these martial exercises. When darkness fell,
the dances ceased and were replaced by a little drama
representing a boar brought to bay by a pack of hounds.
The part of the boar was played by an actor wearing a
wooden boar's head mask, who ran about on all fours and
96
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
Rites at
hoeing.
The Kayan
New Year
festival.
Offerings
and ad-
dresses to
the spirits.
grunted in a life-like manner, while the hounds, acted by
young men, snarled, yelped, and made dashes at him The
play was watched with lively interest and peals of laughter
by the spectators. Later in the evening eight disguised
girls danced, one behind the other, with slow steps and
waving arms, to the glimmering light of torches and the
strains of a sort of Jew's harp.^
The rites which accompany the sowing of the fields are
no sooner over than those which usher in the hoeing begin.
Like the sowing ceremonies, they are inaugurated by a
priestess, who hoes the sacred field round about a sacrificial
stage and then calls upon other people to complete the
work. After that the holy field is again sprinkled with a
decoction of herbs.^
But the crowning point of the Kayan year is the New Year
festival. The harvest has then been fully housed : abundance
reigns in every family, and for eight days the people, dressed
out in all their finery, give themselves up to mirth and jollity.
The festival was witnessed by the Dutch explorer Dr.
Nieuwenhuis. To lure the good spirits from the spirit land
baskets filled with precious objects were set out before the
windows, and the priestesses made long speeches, in which
they invited these beneficent beings to come to the chief's
house and to stay there during the whole of the ceremonies.
Two days afterwards one of the priestesses harangued the
spirits for three-quarters of an hour, telling them who the
Kayans were, from whom the chief's family was descended,
what the tribe was doing, and what were its wishes, not for-
getting to implore the vengeance of the spirits on the Batang-
Lupars, the hereditary foes of the Kayans. The harangue was
couched in rhyming verse and delivered in sing-song tones.
Five days later eight priestesses ascended a sacrificial stage,
on which food was daily set forth for the spirits. There
they joined hands and crooned another long address to the
spirits, marking the time with their hands. Then a basket
containing offerings of food was handed up to them, and one
of the priestesses opened it and invited the spirits to enter the
basket. When they were supposed to have done so, the lid
^ A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit.
167-169.
- A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i.
169.
HI GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 97
was shut down on them, and the basket with the spirits in
it was conveyed into the chief's house. As the priestesses
in the performance of the sacred ceremonies might not touch
the ground, planks were cut from a fruit-tree and laid on the
ground for them to step on. But the great feature of the sacrifice
New Year festival is the sacrifice of pigs, of which the °fp'gs.
spiritual essence is appropriately offered to the spirits, while
their material substance is consumed by the worshippers.
In carrying out this highly satisfactory arrangement, while
the live pigs lay tethered in a row on the ground, the
priestesses danced solemnly round a sacrificial stage, each of
them arrayed in a war-mantle of panther-skin and wearing a
war-cap on her head, and on either side two priests armed
with swords executed war dances for the purpose of scaring
away evil spirits. By their gesticulations the priestesses
indicated to the powers above that the pigs were intended
for their benefit. One of them, a fat but dignified lady,
dancing composedly, seemed by her courteous gestures to
invite the souls of the pigs to ascend up to heaven ; but
others, not content with this too ideal offering, rushed at the
pigs, seized the smallest of them by the hind legs, and
exerting all their strength danced with the squealing porker
to and from the sacrificial stage. In the evening, before
darkness fell, the animals were slaughtered and their livers
examined for omens : if the under side of the liver was
pale, the omen was good ; but if it was dark, the omen
was evil. On the last day of the festival one of the chief
priestesses, in martial array, danced round the sacrificial
stage, making passes with her old sword as if she would
heave the whole structure heavenward ; while others stabbed
with spears at the foul fiends that might be hovering in
the air, intent on disturbing the sacred ministers at their
holy work.^
" Thus," says Dr. Nieuwenhuis, reviewing the agricultural Dr. Nieu-
rites which he witnessed among the Kayans on the Mendalam y"'^"'^ ^"^
° ^ the games
river, " every fresh operation on the rice-field was ushered in by played by
religious and culinary ceremonies, during which the com- [u'coiT-^^"^
munity had always to observe taboos for several nights and to nexionwith
play certain definite games. As we saw, spinning-top games ^^"^"
^ A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo, i. 171-1S2.
PT. V. VOL. I H
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
Serious
religious
or magical
signifi-
cance of
the games.
and masquerades were played during the sowing festival :
at the first bringing in of the rice the people pelted each other
with clay pellets discharged from small pea-shooters, but in
former times sham fights took place with wooden swords ;
while during the New Year festival the men contend with
each other in wrestling, high leaps, long leaps, and running.
The women also fight each other with great glee, using
bamboo vessels full of water for their principal weapons." ^
What is the meaning of the sports and pastimes which
custom prescribes to the Kayans on these occasions ? Are
they mere diversions meant to while away the tedium of the
holidays ? or have they a serious, perhaps a religious or
magical significance ? To this question it will be well to let
Dr. Nieuwenhuis give his answer. " The Kayans on the
Mendalam river," he says, " enjoy tolerably regular harvests,
and their agricultural festivals accordingly take place every
year ; whereas the Kayans on the Mahakam river, on
account of the frequent failure of the harvests, can celebrate
a New Year's festival only once in every two or three years.
Yet although these festivities are celebrated more regularly
on the Mendalam river, they are followed on the Mahakam
river with livelier interest, and the meaning of all ceremonies
and games can also be traced much better there. On the
Mendalam river I came to the false conclusion that the
popular games which take place at the festivals are under-
taken quite arbitrarily at the seasons of sowing and harvest ;
but on the Mahakam river, on the contrary, I observed that
even the masquerade at the sowing festival is invested with
as deep a significance as any of the ceremonies performed by
the priestesses." ^
" The influence of religious worship, which dominates the
whole life of the Dyak tribes, manifests itself also in their
games. This holds good chiefly of pastimes in which all
adults take part together, mostly on definite occasions ; it is
less applicable to more individual pastimes which are not
restricted to any special season. Pastimes of the former
sort are very rarely indulged in at ordinary times, and
properly speaking they attain their full significance only on
1 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i.
169 sq.
2 A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. cit. i.
163 sq.
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
99
the occasion of the agricultural festivals which bear a strictly
religious stamp. Even then the recreations are not left to
choice, but definite games belong to definite festivals ; thus
at the sowing festivals other amusements are in vogue than
at the little harvest festival or the great harvest festival at
the beginning of the reaping, and at the New Year festival.
... Is this connexion between festivals and games merely
an accidental one, or is it based on a real affinity? The
latter seems to me the more probable view, for in the case
of one of the most important games played by men I was
able to prove directly a religious significance ; and although
I failed to do so in the case of the others, I conjecture,
nevertheless, that a religious idea lies at the bottom of all
other games which are connected with definite festivals." ^
If the reader should entertain any doubt on the subject. The Kai,
and should suspect that in arriving at this conclusion the cuitura'i
Dutch traveller gave the reins to his fancy rather than people of
followed the real opinion of the people, these doubts and ^ew
suspicions will probably be dispelled by comparing the Guinea,
similar games which another primitive agricultural people
avowedly play for the purpose of ensuring good crops.
The people in question are the Kai of German New Guinea,
who inhabit the rugged, densely wooded mountains inland
from Finsch Harbour. They subsist mainly on the produce
of the taro and yams which they cultivate in their fields,
though the more inland people also make much use of
sweet potatoes. All their crops are root crops. No patch
of ground is cultivated for more than a year at a time. As
soon as it has yielded a crop, it is deserted for another and
is quickly overgrown with rank weeds, bamboos, and bushes.
In six or eight years, when the undergrowth has died out
under the shadow of the taller trees which have shot up, the
land may again be cleared and brought under cultivation.
Thus the area of cultivation shifts from year to year ; and
the villages are not much more permanent ; for in the damp
tropical climate the wooden houses soon rot and fail into
' A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer dtirch of the Mahakam river, where disguised
Borneo, ii. 130 sq. The game as to men personate spirits and pretend to
the religious significance of which Dr. draw home the souls of the rice from
Nieuwenhuis has no doubt is the the far countries to which they may
masquerade performed by the Kayans have wandered. See below, pp i86j^.
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
buper-
stitious
practices
observed
by the Kai
for the
good of
the crops.
ruins, and when this happens the site of the village is
changed.^ To procure good crops of the taro and yams, on
which they depend for their subsistence, the Kai resort to
many superstitious practices. For example, in order to
make the yams strike deep roots, they touch the shoots
with the bone of a wild animal that has been killed in
the recesses of a cave, imagining that just as the creature
penetrated deep into the earth, so the shoots that have been
touched with its bone will descend deep into the ground.
And in order that the taro may bear large and heavy fruit,
they place the shoots, before planting them, on a large and
heavy block of stone, believing that the stone will communi-
cate its valuable properties of size and weight to the future
fruit. Moreover, great use is made of spells and incantations
to promote the growth of the crops, and all persons who utter
such magical formulas for this purpose have to abstain from
eating certain foods until the plants have sprouted and give
promise of a good crop. For example, they may not eat
young bamboo shoots, which are a favourite article of diet
with the people. The reason is that the young shoots are
covered with fine prickles, which cause itching and irritation
of the skin ; from which the Kai infer that if an enchanter
of field fruits were to eat bamboo shoots, the contagion of
their prickles would be conveyed through him to the fruits
and would manifest itself in a pungent disagreeable flavour.
For a similar reason no charmer of the crops who knows
his business would dream of eating crabs, because he is well
aware that if he were to do so the leaves and stalks of the
plants would be dashed in pieces by a pelting rain, just like
the long thin brittle legs of a dead crab. Again, were such
an enchanter to eat any of the edible kinds of locusts, it
seems obvious to the Kai that locusts would devour the
crops over which the imprudent wizard had recited his
spells. Above all, people who are concerned in planting
fields must on no account eat pork ; because pigs, whether
wild or tame, are the most deadly enemies of the crops,
which they grub up and destroy ; from which it follows, as
surely as the night does the day, that if you eat pork while
1 Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Lebender
Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss, Deutsch
Neti-Guinea, iii. (Berlin, 191 1) pp. 3,
9 sq., 12 sq.
in GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE loi
you are at work on the farm, your fields will be devastated
by inroads of pigs.^
However, these precautions are not the only measures Games
which the Kai people adopt for the benefit of the yams and [jJe^K^-^^
the taro. " In the opinion of the natives various games people
are important for a proper growth of the field -fruits ; the'^g°owth
hence these games may only be played in the time after of the yams
the work on the fields has been done. Thus to swing
on a long Spanish reed fastened to a branch of a tree is
thought to have a good effect on the newly planted yams.
Therefore swinging is practised by old and young, by men
and women. No one who has an interest in the growth of
his crop in the field leaves the swing idle. As they swing
to and fro they sing swing- songs. These songs often
contain only the names of the kinds of yams that have been
planted, together with the joyous harvest-cry repeated with
variations, ' I have found a fine fruit ! ' In leaping from
the swing, they cry ^ Kakulili T By calling out the name
of the yams they think to draw their shoots upwards out of
the ground. A small bow with a string, on which a wooden
flag adorned with a feather is made to slide down (the Kai
call the instrument tawataivd), may only be used when the
yams are beginning to wind up about their props. The
tender shoots are then touched with the bow, while a song
is sung which is afterwards often repeated in the village. It
runs thus : ^ JSIauia gelo,geIowaineja,gelowaineja ; kiki tambai^
kiki tainbai! The meaning of the words is unknown. The
intention is to cause a strong upward growth of the plants.
In order that the foliage of the yams may sprout luxuriantly
and grow green and spread, the Kai people play cat's cradle.
Each of the intricate figures has a definite meaning and a
name to match : for example ' the flock of pigeons ' {Hu/ita),
'the Star,' 'the Flying Fox,' 'the Sago -palm Fan,' 'the
Araucaria,' ' the Lizard and the Dog,' ' the Pig,' ' the Sentinel-
box in the Fields,' ' the Rat's Nest,' ' the Wasp's Nest in
the Bamboo -thicket,' 'the Kangaroo,' 'the Spider's Web,'
' the Little Children,' ' the Canoe,' ' Rain and Sunshine,'
'the Pig's Pitfall,' 'the Fish -spawn,' 'the Two Cousins,
Kewa and Imbiawa. carrying their dead Mother to the
^ Ch. Keysser, <?/. cit. pp. 123-125.
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
Tales and
legends
told by the
Kai to
cause the
fruits of
the earth
to thrive.
Thus
among
these New
Guinea
people
games are
played and
Grave,' etc. By spinning large native acorns or a sort
of wild fig they think that they foster the growth of the
newly-planted taro ; the plants will ' turn about and broaden.'
The game must therefore only be played at the time when
the taro is planted. The same holds good of spearing at
the stalks of taro leaves with the ribs of sago leaves used as
miniature spears. This is done when the taro leaves have
unfolded themselves, but when the plants have not yet set
any tubers. A single leaf is cut from a number of stems, and
these leaves are brought into the village. The game is played
by two partners, who sit down opposite to each other at a dis-
tance of three or four paces. A number of taro stalks lie beside
each. He who has speared all his adversary's stalks first is
victor ; then they change stalks and the game begins again.
By piercing the leaves they think that they incite the plants
to set tubers. Almost more remarkable than the limita-
tion of these games to the time when work on the fields
is going forward is the custom of the Kai people which
only permits the tales of the olden time or popular
legends to be told at the time when the newly planted
fruits are budding and sprouting." ^ At the end of every
such tale the Kai story-teller mentions the names of
the various kinds of yams and adds, " Shoots (for the new
planting) and fruits (to eat) in abundance ! " " From their
concluding words we see that the Kai legends are only
told for a quite definite purpose, namely, to promote the
welfare of the yams planted in the field. By reviving the
memory of the ancient beings, to whom the origin of
the field-fruits is referred, they imagine that they influence
the growth of the fruits for good. When the planting is
over, and especially when the young plants begin to sprout,
the telling of legends comes to an end. In the villages it is
always only a few old men who as good story-tellers can
hold the attention of their hearers." ^
Thus with these New Guinea people the playing of
certain games and the recital of certain legends are alike
magical in their intention ; they are charms practised to
ensure good crops. Both sets of charms appear to be based
on the principles of sympathetic magic. In playing the
^ Ch. Keysser, op. cit. iii. 125 jjt. 2 q\^ Keysser, op. cit. iii. 161.
Ill GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 103
games the players perform acts which are supposed to mimic stories told
or at all events to stimulate the corresponding processes in j^ ensure^
the plants : by swinging high in the air they make the plants good crops.
grow high ; by playing cat's cradle they cause the leaves of
the yams to spread and the stalks to intertwine, even as
the players spread their hands and twine the string about
their fingers ; by spinning fruits they make the taro plants
to turn and broaden ; and by spearing the taro leaves
they induce the plants to set tubers.^ In telling the
legends the story-tellers mention the names of the power-
ful beings who first created the fruits of the earth, and the
mere mention of their names avails, on the principle of
the magical equivalence of names and persons or things,
to reproduce the effect.^ The recitation of tales as a charm
to promote the growth of the crops is not peculiar to the Kai.
It is practised also by the Bakaua, another tribe of German
New Guinea, who inhabit the coast of Huon Gulf, not far
from the Kai. These people tell stories in the evening at the
time when the yams and taro are ripe, and the stories always
end with a prayer to the ancestral spirits, invoked under
various more or less figurative designations, such as " a man "
or " a cricket," that they would be pleased to cause countless
shoots to sprout, the great tubers to swell, the sugar-cane to
^ On the principles of homoeopathic Koch-Griinberg, Zwei Jahre unter den
or imitative magic, see The Magic Art Indiaticrn (Berlin, 1909-1910), i. 120,
and the Evohitioti of Kings, i. 52 sqq. 123, 252, 253, ii. 127, 131. Finding
The Esquimaux play cat's cradle as a the game played as a magical rite to stay
charm to catch the sun in the meshes the sun or promote the growth of the
of the string and so prevent him from crops among peoples so distant from
sinking below the horizon in winter. each other as the Esquimaux and the
See The Magic Art and the Evohition natives of New Guinea, we may reason-
of Kings, i. 316 sq. Cat's cradle is ably surmise that it has been put to
played as a game by savages in many similar uses by many other peoples,
parts of the world, including the Torres though civilised observers have com-
Straits Islands, the Andaman Islands, monly seen in it nothing more than a
Africa, and America. See A. C. Had- pastime. Probably many games have
don, The Study of Man (London and thus originated in magical rites.
New York, 189S), pp. 224-232 ; Miss When their old serious meaning was
Kathleen Haddon, Cafs Cradles from forgotten, they continued to be practised
^a«y Zaw^j (London, 191 1). For ex- simply for the amusement they afforded
ample, the Indians of North-western the players. Another such game seems
Brazil play many games of cat's cradle, to be the "Tug of War." See The
each of which has its special name, such Golden Bottgh,^ iii. 95.
as the Bow, the Moon, the Pleiades, the
Armadillo, the Spider, the Caterpillar, ^ gee Taboo and the Perils of the
and the Guts of the Tapir. See Th. Sotil, pp. 318 sqg.
I04
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
The Yabim
of German
New
Guinea
also tell
tales on
purpose
to obtain
abundant
crops.
Specimens
of Yabim
tales told
as charms
to procure
a good
harvest.
thrive, and the bananas to hang in long clusters. " From this
we see," says the missionary who reports the custom, " that
the object of telling the stories is to prove to the ancestors,
whose spirits are believed to be present at the recitation of
the tales which they either invented or inherited, that people
always remember them ; for which reason they ought to be
favourable to their descendants, and above all to bestow their
blessings on the shoots which are ready to be planted or on
the plants already in the ground." As the story-teller utters
the prayer, he looks towards the house in which the young
shoots ready for planting or the ripe fruits are deposited.^
Similarly, the Yabim, a neighbouring tribe of German
New Guinea, at the entrance to Huon Gulf, tell tales for
the purpose of obtaining a plentiful harvest of yams, taro,
sugar-cane, and bananas.^ They subsist chiefly by the
fruits of the earth which they cultivate, and among which
taro, yams, and sugar-cane supply them with their staple
food.^ In their agricultural labours they believe themselves
to be largely dependent on the spirits of their dead, the
balum, as they call them. Before they plant the first taro in
a newly cleared field they invoke the souls of the dead to
make the plants grow and prosper ; and to propitiate these
powerful spirits they bring valuable objects, such as boar's
tusks and dog's teeth, into the field, in order that the ghosts
may deck themselves with the souls of these ornaments,
while at the same time they minister to the grosser appetites
of the disembodied spirits by offering them a savoury mess
of taro porridge. Later in the season they whirl bull-
roarers in the fields and call out the names of the dead,
believing that this makes the crops to thrive.*
But besides the prayers which they address to the spirits of
the dead for the sake of procuring an abundant harvest, the
Yabim utter spells for the same purpose, and these spells some-
times take the form, not of a command, but of a narrative.
Here, for instance, is one of their spells : " Once upon a time
a man laboured in his field and complained that he had no
1 Stefan Lehner, " Bukaua," in R. ^ H. Zahn, "Die Jabim," in R.
Neuhauss, Detitsch Neu-Guitiea, ill. Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu- Guinea, iii.
(Berlin, 191 1) pp. 478 sq. (Berlin, 1911) p. 290.
2 See Taboo and the Perils of the
Soul, p. 386. 4 H. Zahn, op. cii. pp. 332 sq.
Ill GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 105
taro shoots. Then came two doves flying from Poum. They
had devoured much taro, and they perched on a tree in the
field, and during the night they vomited all the taro up.
Thus the man got so many taro shoots that he was even
able to sell some of them to other people." Or, again, if
the taro will not bud, the Yabim will have recourse to the
following spell : " A muraena lay at ebb-tide on the shore.
It seemed to be at its last gasp. Then the tide flowed
on, and the muraena came to life again and plunged
into the deep water." This spell is pronounced over
twigs of a certain tree {kalelong), while the enchanter
smites the ground with them. After that the taro is sure to
bud.^ Apparently the mere recitation of such simple tales is
thought to produce the same effect as a direct appeal, whether
in the shape of a prayer or a command, addressed to the
spirits. Such incantations may be called narrative spells to Such tales
distinguish them from the more familiar imperative spells, ^^^^j^
in which the enchanter expresses his wishes in the form narrative
of direct commands. Much use seems to be made of such ^^^ ^'
narrative spells among the natives of this part of German
New Guinea. For example, among the Bukaua, who attri-
bute practically boundless powers to sorcerers in every
department of life and nature, the spells by which these
wizards attempt to work their will assume one of two
forms : either they are requests made to the ancestors, or
they are short narratives, addressed to nobody in particular,
which the sorcerer mutters while he is performing his
magical rites.^ It is true, that here the distinction is drawn
between narratives and requests rather than between
narratives and commands ; but the difference of a re-
quest from a command, though great in theory, may be
very slight in practice ; so that prayer and spell, in the
ordinary sense of the words, may melt into each other
almost imperceptibly. Even the priest or the enchanter who
utters the one may be hardly conscious of the hairbreadth
that divides it from the other. In regard to narrative spells,
it seems probable that they have been used much more exten-
sively among mankind than the evidence at our disposal per-
* H. Zahn, op. cit. p. 333. Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii.
2 Stefan l.ehner, "Bukaua," in R. (Berlin, 191 1) p. 448.
ro6 GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
mits us positively to affirm ; in particular we may conjecture
that many ancient narratives, which we have been accustomed
to treat as mere myths, used to be regularly recited in
magical rites as spells for the purpose of actually producing
events like those which they describe.
Use of the The use of the bull-roarer to quicken the fruits of the
bull-roarer g^j-^-j^ jg ^q^ peculiar to the Yabim. On the other side of
to quicken ^
the fruits of New Guinea the instrument is employed for the same
the earth, puj-pogg by ^he natives of Kiwai, an island at the mouth
of the Fly River. They think that by whirling bull-roarers
they produce good crops of yams, sweet potatoes, and
bananas ; and in accordance with this belief they call
the implement " the mother of yams." ^ Similarly in
Mabuiag, an island in Torres Straits, the bull-roarer is looked
upon as an instrument that can be used to promote the
growth of garden produce, such as yams and sweet potatoes ;
certain spirits were supposed to march round the gardens at
night swinging bull-roarers for this purpose.^ Indeed a
fertilising or prolific virtue appears to be attributed to the
instrument by savages who are totally ignorant of agricul-
ture. Thus among the Dieri of central Australia, when a
young man had undergone the painful initiatory ceremony
of having a number of gashes cut in his back, he used to be
given a bull-roarer, whereupon it was believed that he
became inspired by the spirits of the men of old, and
that by whirling it, when he went in search of game before
his wounds were healed, he had power to cause a good
harvest of lizards, snakes, and other reptiles. On the other
hand, the Dieri thought that if a woman were to see a bull-
roarer that had been used at the initiatory ceremonies and
to learn its secret, the tribe would ever afterwards be
destitute of snakes, lizards, and other such food.^ It may
1 A. C. Haddon, in Reports of the 3 a. W. Howitt, " The Dieri
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition and other kindred Tribes of Central
to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, Australia," Journal of the Anthro-
1904) pp. 218, 219. Compare id., pological Institute, xx. (1891) p.
Head-hunters, Black, White, and 83; id.. Native Tribes of South-
Brown (London, 1901) p. 104. East Australia (London, 1904), p.
2 A. C. Haddon, in Reports of the 660. The first, I believe, to point
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition out the fertilising power ascribed to
to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, the buU-roaier by some savages was
1904) pp. 346 sq. Dr. A. C. Haddon. See his essay.
Ill GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 107
very well be that a similar power to fertilise or multiply
edible plants and animals has been ascribed to the bull-
roarer by many other peoples who employ the implement in
their mysteries.
Further, it is to be observed that just as the Kai of Swinging
New Guinea swing to and fro on reeds suspended from the ^j^^^f"'
branches of trees in order to promote the growth of the charm,
crops, in like manner Lettish peasants in Russia devote
their leisure to swinging in spring and early summer for
the express purpose of making the flax grow as high as
they swing in the air.^ And we may suspect that wherever
swinging is practised as a ceremony at certain times of the
year, particularly in spring and at harvest, the pastime is
not so much a mere popular recreation as a magical rite
designed to promote the growth of the crops.^
With these examples before us we need not hesitate to
believe that Dr. Nieuwenhuis is right when he attributes a
deep religious or magical significance to the games which
the Kayans or Bahaus of central Borneo play at their
various agricultural festivals.
It remains to point out how far the religious or magical Analogy of
practices of these primitive agricultural peoples of Borneo o'j^Bo^ngo^
and New Guinea appear to illustrate by analogy the original to the
nature of the rites of Eleusis. So far as we can recompose, EkusTstn
from the broken fragments of tradition, a picture of the the early
religious and political condition of the Eleusinian people
in the olden time, it appears to tally fairly well with the
picture which Dr. Nieuwenhuis has drawn for us of the
Kayans or Bahaus at the present day in the forests of
central Borneo. Here as there we see a petty agricultural
community ruled by hereditary chiefs who, while they
unite religious to civil authority, being bound to preside
over the numerous ceremonies performed for the good of
"The Bull-roarer," in The Study of asian Association for the Advancement
Man (London and New York, 1898), of Science for the year igoo {VL€^\)0\!,xxit.,
pp. 277-327. In this work Dr. Had- 1901), pp. 313-322.
don recognises the general principle of ^ ^ ^ .^ deutsch-russischen
the possible derivation of many games r\ . ^ /t-.j jt-
, '^ ■ , . A..i-1-ii Ostseeprovmzen (Dresden and Leipsic,
from magical rites. As to the bull- o f ■■ .
,.^ 1841 , 11- 25.
roarer compare my paper " On some ^ " -^
Ceremonies of the Central Australian * For the evidence see The Dying
Tribes," in the Report of the Austral- God, pp. 277-285.
io8 GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
the crops,^ nevertheless lead simple patriarchal lives and
are so little raised in outward dignity above their fellows
that their daughters do not deem it beneath them to fetch
water for the household from the village well.^ Here as
there we see a people whose whole religion is dominated
and coloured by the main occupation of their lives ; who
believe that the growth of the crops, on which they depend
for their subsistence, is at the mercy of two powerful spirits,
a divine husband and his wife, dwelling in a subterranean
world ; and who accordingly offer sacrifices and perform
ceremonies in order to ensure the favour of these mighty
beings and so to obtain abundant harvests. If we knew
more about the Rarian plain at Eleusis,^ we might dis-
cover that it was the scene of many religious ceremonies
like those which are performed on the little consecrated
rice -fields (the luina lali) of the Kayans, where the
various operations of the agricultural year are performed
in miniature by members of the chiefs family before the
corresponding operations may be performed on a larger
The Sacred scale by common folk on their fields. Certainly we know
at^Ekusif ^^^^ ^^^ Rarian plain witnessed one such ceremony in the
year. It was a solemn ceremony of ploughing, one of the
three Sacred Ploughings which took place annually in
various parts of Attica.* Probably the rite formed part of
the Proerosia or Festival before Ploughing, which was intended
to ensure a plentiful crop.^ Further, it appears that the
priests who guided the sacred slow-paced oxen as they dragged
the plough down the furrows of the Rarian Plain, were drawn
from the old priestly family of Bouzygai or " Ox-yokers,"
whose eponymous ancestor is said to have been the first man
to yoke oxen and to plough the fields. As they performed
this time-honoured ceremony, the priests uttered many quaint
curses against all churls who should refuse to lend fire or water
to neighbours, or to shew the way to wanderers, or who should
^ On the Kayan chiefs and their ings was performed at Sciruni, and
religious duties, see A. W. Nieuwen- the third at the foot of the Acropolis
huis, Quer durch Borneo, i. 58-60. at Athens ; for in this passage of
2 See above, p. 36. Plutarch we must, with the latest
^ See above, p. 74. editor, read hvo Tr6\Lv for the vwb
* Plutarch, Praecepta Conjugalia, TriXiv of the manuscripts.
42. Another of these Sacred Plough- * See above, pp. 50 si/^.
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
109
leave a corpse unburied.^ If we had a complete list of the
execrations fulminated by the holy ploughmen on these
occasions, we might find that some of them were levelled at
the impious wretches who failed to keep all the rules of the
Sabbath, as we may call those periods of enforced rest and
seclusion which the Kayans of Borneo and other primitive
agricultural peoples observe for the good of the crops.^
1 Etyinologicum lifagnutn, s.v.
"Bov^vyla, p. 206, lines 47 sqq. ; Im.
Bekker, Anecdota Graeca (Berlin, 1814-
1821), i. 221 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii.
199 ; Hesychius, s.v. Bov^vyrjs ■ Ka6l<T-
raro di trap avrots Kai tovs iepovs
oLpbrovs iirtreXuiv Bov^vyr]? ; Paroeniio-
graphi Graeci, ed. E. L. Leutsch und
F. G. Schneidewin (Gottingen, 1839-
1851), i. 388, Boi'fy777S- i-rclTGiv iroWa
apwfj.iv(j3v. '0 yap 'Qov^vyqi 'AOrjvrjaiv 6
Tov lepbv dpoTOv fTriTeXu)i' &\\a re
TToXXd dpdraL Kal tois /xrj KOivwvovffi Kara
rbv ^iov iiSaTO-; •^ wvpos fj fj.7] vTro(paivov(nv
oSbu Tr\avwij.&OLS ; Scholiast on Soph-
ocles, Antigone, 255, X670S 5e 6tl
Bov^vyqi 'AdrjvTja'L KaT-qpdcraTO rots
wepLopQaiv dracpov ffCiixa. The Sacred
Ploughing at the foot of the Acropolis
was specially called bouzygios (Plutarch,
Praecepta Conjugalia, 42). Compare
J. Toepffer, Attische Genealogie (Ber-
lin, 1889) pp. 136 sqq.
2 Such Sabbaths are very commonly
and very strictly observed in connexion
with the crops by the agricultural hill
tribes of Assam. The native name
for such a Sabbath is genna. See T.
C. Hodson, "The Getma amongst the
Tribes of Assam," Journal of the
Anthropological Institiite, xxxvi. (1906)
pp. 94 sq. : " Communal tabus are
observed by the whole village. . . .
Those which are of regular occurrence
are for the most part connected with
the crops. Even where irrigated
terraces are made, the rice plant is
much affected by deficiencies of rain
and excess of sun. Before the crop is
sown, the village is tabu or genna.
The gates are closed and the friend
without has to stay outside, while the
stranger that is within the gates re-
mains till all is ended. The festival
is marked among some tribes by an
outburst of licentiousness, for, so long
as the crops remain ungarnered, the
slightest incontinence might ruin all.
An omen of the prosperity of the crops
is taken by a mock contest, the girls
pulling against the men. In some
villages the gennas last for ten days,
but the tenth day is the crowning day
of all. The men cook, and eat apart
from the women during this time, and
the food tabus are strictly enforced.
From the conclusion of the initial crop
genna to the commencement of the
genna which ushers in the harvest -
time, all trade, all fishing, all hunting,
all cutting grass and felling trees is
forbidden. Those tribes which speci-
alise in cloth - weaving, salt - making
or pottery-making are forbidden the
exercise of these minor but valuable
industries. Drums and bugles are
silent all the while. . . . Between the
initial crop genna and the harvest-
home, some tribes interpose a genna
day which depends on the appearance
of the first blade of rice. AH cele-
brate the commencement of the gather-
ing of the crops by a genna, which
lasts at least two days. It is mainly
a repetition of the initial genna and,
just as the first seed was sown by the
gennabura, the religious head of the
village, so he is obliged to cut the first
ear of rice before any one else may
begin." On such occasions among
the Kabuis, in spile of the licence
accorded to the people generally, the
strictest chastity is required of the
religious head of the village who in-
itiates the sowing and the reaping,
and his diet is extremely limited ; for
example, he may not eat dogs or
tomatoes. See T. C. Hodson, "The
Native Tribes of Manipur," Journal
of the Antlu-opological Institute, xxxi,
(1901) pp. 306 sq. ; and for more
details, id., The Naga Tribes of Mani-
GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
The con-
nexion
of the
Eleusinian
games with
agricuhure,
attested
by the
ancients,
is con-
firmed by
modern
savage
analogies.
Further, when we see that many primitive peoples
practise what we call games but what they regard in all
seriousness as solemn rites for the good of the crops, we
may be the more inclined to accept the view of the ancients,
who associated the Eleusinian games directly with the
worship of Demeter and Persephone, the Corn Goddesses.^
One of the contests at the Eleusinian games was in leaping,^
and we know that even in modern Europe to this day
leaping or dancing high is practised as a charm to make
the crops grow tall.^ Again, the bull-roarer was swung
so as to produce a humming sound at the Greek
mysteries ; * and when we find the same simple instrument
whirled by savages in New Guinea for the sake of ensuring
good crops, we may reasonably conjecture that it was
whirled with a like intention by the rude forefathers of the
Greeks among the cornfields of Eleusis. If that were so —
though the conjecture is hardly susceptible of demonstration
— it would go some way to confirm the theory that the
pur (London, 191 1), pp. 168 sqq.
The resemblance of some of these
customs to those of the Kayans of
Borneo is obvious. We may con-
jecture that the "tug of war" which
takes place between the sexes on
several of these Sabbaths was originally
a magical ceremony to ensure good
crops rather than merely a mode of
divination to forecast the coming har-
vest. Magic regularly dwindles into
divination before it degenerates into a
simple game. At one of these taboo
periods the men set up an effigy of a
man and throw pointed bamboos at
it. He who hits the figure in the
head will kill an enemy ; he who hits
it in the belly will have plenty of food.
See T. C. Hodson, in Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. (1906)
p. 95 ; id.. The Naga Tribes of Alaiii-
pur, p. 171. Here also we probably
have an old magical ceremony passing
through a phase of divination before it
reaches the last stage of decay. On
Sabbaths observed in connexion with
agriculture in Borneo and Assam, see
further Hutton Webster, Rest Days,
a Sociological Study, pp. 1 1 sqq. ( Uni-
versity Studies, Lincoln, Nebraska,
vol. xi. Nos. 1-2, January- April,
191 1).
1 See above, p. 71.
2 See above, p. 71 note*.
3 See The Magic Art and the
Evolution of Kings, i. 13 7- 1 39.
* See the old Greek scholiast on
Clement of Alexandria, quoted by Chr.
Aug. Lobeck, Aglaopha>nus (Konigs-
berg, 1829), p. 700; Andrew Lang,
Custom and Myth (London, 1884), p.
39. It is true that the bull-roarer seems
to have been associated with the rites
of Dionysus rather than of Demeter ;
perhaps the sound of it was thought to
mimick the bellowing of the god in
his character of a bull. But the wor-
ship of Dionysus was from an early
time associated with that of Demeter
in the Eleusinian mysteries ; and the
god himself, as we have seen, had
agricultural affinities. See above, p.
5. An annual festival of swinging
(which, as we have seen, is still prac-
tised both in New Guinea and Russia
for the good of the crops) was held by
the Athenians in antiquity and was
believed to have originated in the
worship of Dionysus. See The Dying
God, pp. 281 sq.
Ill GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE in
Eleusinian mysteries were in their origin nothing more than
simple rustic ceremonies designed to make the farmer's
fields to wave with yellow corn. And in the practice of
the Kayans, whose worship of the rice offers many analogies
to the Eleusinian worship of the corn, may we not detect a
hint of the origin of that rule of secrecy which always
characterised the Eleusinian mysteries ? May it not have
been that, just as the Kayans exclude strangers from their
villages while they are engaged in the celebration of religious
rites, lest the presence of these intruders should frighten or
annoy the shy and touchy spirits who are invoked at these
times, so the old Eleusinians may have debarred foreigners
from participation in their most solemn ceremonies, lest the
coy goddesses of the corn should take fright or offence at
the sight of strange faces and so refuse to bestow on men
their annual blessing ? The admission of foreigners to the
privilege of initiation in the mysteries was probably a late
innovation introduced at a time when the fame of their
sanctity had spread far and wide, and when the old magical
meaning of the ritual had long been obscured, if not
forgotten.
Lastly, it may be suggested that in the masked dances The sacred
and dramatic performances, which form a conspicuous ^^?^^^
and popular feature of the Sowing Festival among the Eleusinian
Kayans,^ we have the savage counterpart of that drama ^^f^^rej
of divine death and resurrection which appears to have to the
figured so prominently in the mysteries of Eleusis.^ dali^ce^s of
If my interpretation of that solemn drama is correct, it agricui-
represented in mythical guise the various stages in the growth savages.
of the corn for the purpose of magically fostering the natural
processes which it simulated. In like manner among the
Kaua and Kobeua Indians of North-western Brazil, who subsist
chiefly by the cultivation of manioc, dances or rather panto-
mimes are performed by masked men, who represent spirits
or demons of fertility, and by imitating the act of procreation
are believed to stimulate the growth of plants as well as to
quicken the wombs of women and to promote the multipli-
cation of animals. Coarse and grotesque as these dramatic
performances may seem to us, they convey no suggestion of
1 See above, pp. 95 sq., and below, pp. 186 sq. 2 ggg above, p. 39.
112 GAMES IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap, in
indecency to the minds either of the actors or of the
spectators, who regard them in all seriousness as rites des-
tined to confer the blessing of fruitfulness on the inhabitants
of the village, on their plantations, and on the whole realm
of nature.^ However, we possess so little exact information
as to the rites of Eleusis that all attempts to elucidate them
by the ritual of savages must necessarily be conjectural.
Yet the candid reader may be willing to grant that con-
jectures supported by analogies like the foregoing do not
exceed the limits of a reasonable hypothesis.
^ Th. Koch-Griinberg, Zwei Jahre to the cultivation of manioc among
unter den htdianern (Berlin, 1909- these Indians see id. ii. 202 sqq.
1910), i. 137-140, ii. 193-196. As
I
CHAPTER IV
woman's part in primitive agriculture
If Demeter was indeed a personification of the corn, Theory
it is natural to ask, why did the Greeks personify the pgrsVili^
corn as a goddess rather than a god ? why did they ascribe ficaiion of
the origin of agriculture to a female rather than to a male feminine
power ? They conceived the spirit of the vine as masculine ; was sug-
crested by
why did they conceive the spirit of the barley and wheat as the part
feminine ? To this it has been answered that the personi- p'ayed by
. . women in
fication of the corn as feminme, or at all events the ascription primitive
of the discovery of agriculture to a goddess, was suggested agriculture.
by the prominent part which women take in primitive agri-
culture.^ The theory illustrates a recent tendency of mytho-
logists to explain many myths as reflections of primitive
society rather than as personifications of nature. For that
reason, apart from its intrinsic interest, the theory deserves
to be briefly considered.
Before the invention of the plough, which can hardly be Among
worked without resort to the labour of men, it was and still ^^^ge
is customary in many parts of the world to break up the tribes the
., ,. ... -11 1 , r labour of
soil for cultivation with hoes, and among not a few savage hoeing the
peoples to this day the task of hoeing the ground and sow- ground and
:, ,,, .1 -1 1 sowing the
ing the seed devolves mainly or entirely upon the women, seed de-
while the men take little or no part in cultivation beyond solves on
*■ ' women.
clearing the land by felling the forest trees and burning the
fallen timber and brushwood which encumber the soil.
Thus, for example, among the Zulus, " when a piece of land
has been selected for cultivation, the task of clearing it
' F. B. Jevons, httrodtiction to the p. 240 ; H. Hirt, Die Indogermanen
History of Religion (London, 1896), (Strasburg, 1905- 1907), i. 251 sqq.
PT. V. VOL. I 113 I
114 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
Agricui- belongs to the men. If the ground be much encumbered,
done by'^^ ^his becomes a laborious undertaking, for their axe is very
women small, and when a large tree has to be encountered, they
ZuiuslmcT can only lop the branches ; fire is employed when it is
other tribes necdful to remove the trunk. The reader will therefore not
Africa. be surpHscd that the people usually avoid bush-land, though
they seem to be aware of its superior fertility. As a general
rule the men take no further share in the labour of cultiva-
tion ; and, as the site chosen is seldom much encumbered
and frequently bears nothing but grass, their part of the
work is very slight. The women are the real labourers ;
for (except in some particular cases) the entire business of
digging, planting, and weeding devolves on them ; and, if
we regard the assagai and shield as symbolical of the man,
the hoe may be looked upon as emblematic of the woman.
. . . With this rude and heavy instrument the woman digs,
plants, and weeds her garden. Digging and sowing are
generally one operation, which is thus performed ; the seed
is first scattered on the ground, when the soil is dug or
picked up with the hoe, to the depth of three or four inches,
the larger roots and tufts of grass being gathered out, but all
the rest left in or on the ground." ^ A special term of
contempt is applied to any Zulu man, who, deprived of the
services of his wife and family, is compelled by hard
necessity to handle the hoe himself"^ Similarly among the
Baronga of Delagoa Bay, "when the rains begin to fall, some-
times as early as September but generally later, they hasten
to sow. With her hoe in her hands, the mistress of the field
walks with little steps ; every time she lifts a clod of earth
well broken up, and in the hole thus made she plants three
or four grains of maize and covers them up. If she has not
finished clearing all the patch of the bush which she con-
templated, she proceeds to turn up again the fields she tilled
last year. The crop will be less abundant than in virgin
soil, but they plant three or four years successively in the
^ Rev. J. Shooter, The Kafirs of the women plant, weed, and harvest"
Naial and the Zulu Country (London, (Rev. L. Grout, Zulu-land, Philadel-
1S57), pp. 17 sq. Speaking of the phia, N.D., p. 1 10).
Zulus another writer observes : " In - A. Delegorgue, Voyage dans PA-
gardening, the men clear the land, if frique Australe (Paris, 1847), ii.
need be, and sometimes fence it in ; 225.
IV WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 115
same field before it is exhausted. As for enriching the soil
with manure, they never think of it." ^ Among the Barots^,
who cultivate millet, maize, and peas to a small extent and
in a rudimentary fashion, women alone are occupied with the
field-work, and their only implement is a spade or hoe.^ Of
the Matabel^ we are told that " most of the hard work is
performed by the women ; the whole of the cultivation is
done by them. They plough with short spades of native
manufacture ; they sow the fields, and they clear them of
weeds." ^ Among the Awemba, to the west of Lake Tan-
ganyika, the bulk of the work in the plantations falls on the
women ; in particular the men refuse to hoe the ground.
They have a saying, " Is not each male child born for
the axe and each female child for the hoe ? " ^
The natives of the Tanganyika plateau " cultivate the Chastity
banana, and have a curious custom connected with it. No y^quiredm
' the sowers
man is permitted to sow ; but when the hole is prepared a of seed.
little girl is carried to the spot on a man's shoulders. She
first throws into the hole a sherd of broken pottery, and then
scatters the seed over it." ^ The reason of the latter practice
has been explained by more recent observers of these
natives. " Young children, it may here be noted, are often
employed to administer drugs, remedies, even the Poison
Ordeal, and to sow the first seeds. Such acts, the natives
say, must be performed by chaste and innocent hands, lest
a contaminated touch should destroy the potency of the
medicine or of the seedlings planted. It used to be a very
common sight upon the islands of Lake Bangweolo to watch
how a Bisa woman would solve the problem of her own
moral unfitness by carrying her baby-girl to the banana-
plot, and inserting seedlings in the tiny hands for dropping
into the holes already prepared." ^ Similarly among the
people of the Lower Congo " women must remain chaste
while planting pumpkin and calabash seeds, they are not
allowed to touch any pig-meat, and they must wash their
^ H. A. Junod, Les Ba-Ronga Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia
(Neuchatel, 1908), pp. 195 sq. (London, 1911), p. 302.
2 L. Decle, Three Yeats in Savage ^ L. Decle, op. cit. p. 295.
^r2Va (London, 1898), p. 85. ^ C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, T)^;?
3 L. Decle, ^/. cit. p. 160. Great Plateau of Northern Nige?-ia
* C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, Z'/^* (London, 191 1), p. 179.
ii6 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap-
Woman's
part in
agriculture
among the
Caffres of
South
Africa in
general.
hands before touching the seeds. If a woman does not
observe all these rules, she must not plant the seeds, or the
crop will be bad ; she may make the holes, and her baby
girl, or another who has obeyed the restrictions, can drop in
the seeds and cover them over."^ We can now perhaps
understand why Attic matrons had to observe strict chastity
when they celebrated the festival of the Thesmophoria,^ In
Attica that festival was held in honour of Demeter in the
month of Pyanepsion, corresponding to October,^ the season of
the autumn sowing ; and the rites included certain ceremonies
which bore directly on the quickening of the seed/ We may
conjecture that the rule of chastity imposed on matrons at
this festival was a relic of a time when they too, like many
savage women down to the present time, discharged the
important duty of sowing the seed and were bound for that
reason to observe strict continence, lest any impurity on their
part should defile the seed and prevent it from bearing fruit.
Of the Caffres of South Africa in general we read that
" agriculture is mainly the work of the women, for in olden
days the men were occupied in hunting and fighting. The
women do but scratch the land with hoes, sometimes using
long-handled instruments, as in Zululand, and sometimes
short-handled ones, as above the Zambesi. When the ground
is thus prepared, the women scatter the seed, throwing it over
the soil quite at random. They know the time to sow by the
position of the constellations, chiefly by that of the Pleiades.
They date their new year from the time they can see this
constellation just before sunrise." ^ In Basutoland, where
1 Rev. J. H. Weeks, " Notes on
some Customs of the Lower Congo
People," Folk-lore, xx. (1909) p. 31 1.
2 In order to guard against any
breach of the rule they strewed Agiiits
casttis and other plants^ which were
esteemed anaphrodisiacs, under their
beds. See Dioscorides, De Materia
Medica, i. 134 {135), vol. i. p. 130,
ed. C. Sprengel (Leipsic, 1829-1830);
Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiv. 59 ; Aelian,
De Natwa Aiiimalium, ix. 26 ;
Hesychius, s.v. Kviwpov ; Scholiast on
Theocritus, iv. 25 ; Scholiast on
Nicander, Ther. 70 sq.
^ Scholiast on Aristophanes, Thes-
mophor. 80; V\\x\.2iXQk\, Detnosthene<:^'>,o;
Aug. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen
ini Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 310
sq. That Pyanepsion was the month
of sowing is mentioned by Plutarch {his
et Osiris, 69). See above, pp. 45 sq.
■* See below, vol. ii. p. 17 sq.
® Dudley Kidd, The Essential
Kaffir (London, 1904), p. 323. Com-
pare B. Ankermann, " L'Eihno^rnphie
actuellft de I'Afrique meridionale,"
Anthropos, i. (1906) pp. 575 sq. As
to the use of the Pleiades to determine
the time of sowing, see note at the
end of the volume, " The Pleiades in
Primitive Calendars."
IV WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 117
the women also till the fields, though the lands of chiefs are
dug and sowed by men, an attempt is made to determine
the time of sowing by observation of the moon, but the
people generally find themselves out in their reckoning, and
after much dispute are forced to fall back upon the state of the
weather and of vegetation as better evidence of the season of
sowing. Intelligent chiefs rectify the calendar at the summer
solstice, which they call the summer-house of the sun.^
Among the Nandi of British East Africa "the rough Agricui-
work of clearing the bush for plantations is performed by ^^^^ ]^y' '
the men, after which nearly all work in connexion with them vvomen
is done by the women. The men, however, assist in sowing Nandf and
the seed, and in harvesting some of the crops. As a rule other tribes
trees are not felled, but the bark is stripped off for about and
four feet from the ground and the trees are then left to die. Western
° Africa.
The planting is mostly, if not entirely, done durmg the first
half of the Kiptaino moon (February), which is the first
month of the year, and when the Iwat-ktit moon rises
(March) all seed should be in the ground. The chief
medicine man is consulted before the planting operations
begin, but the Nandi know by the arrival in the fields of the
guinea-fowl, whose song is supposed to be, 0-kol, o-kol; mi-i
tokoch (Plant, plant ; there is luck in it), that the planting
season is at hand. When the first seed is sown, salt is
mixed with it, and the sower sings mournfully : Ak o-siek-u
o-cliok-cJii (And grow quickly), as he sows. After fresh
ground has been cleared, eleusine grain is planted. This
crop is generally repeated the second year, after which
millet is sown, and finally sweet potatoes or some other
product. Most fields are allowed to lie fallow every fourth
or fifth year. The Nandi manure their plantations with turf
ashes. . . . The eleusine crops are harvested by both men
and women. All other crops are reaped by the women only,
who are at times assisted by the children. The corn is
pounded and winnowed by the women and girls." ^ Among
1 Rev. E. Casalis, The Basutos people of British East Africa, both
(London, 1861), pp. 143 (with plate), men and women work in the fields
pp. 162-165. with large iron hoes. See Sir Harry
2 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, Johnston, The Uganda Protectoraie
1909), P-I9' However, amongthe Bantu (London, 1904), ii. 738.
Kavirondo, an essentially agricultural
ii8 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
the Suk and En-jemusi of British East Africa it is the
women who cultivate the fields and milk the cows/ Among
the Wadowe of German East Africa the men clear the forest
and break up the hard ground, but the women sow and
reap the crops.^ So among the Wanyamwezi, who are an
essentially agricultural people, to the south of Lake Victoria
Nyanza, the men cut down the bush and hoe the hard
ground, but leave the rest of the labour of weeding, sowing,
Agiicui- and reaping to the women.^ The Baganda of Central Africa
o^women'' subsist chiefly on bananas, and among them " the garden
among the and its Cultivation have always been the woman's depart-
agan a. j^gj^|- Princcsses and peasant women alike looked upon
cultivation as their special work ; the garden with its produce
was essentially the wife's domain, and she would under no
circumstances allow her husband to do any digging or
sowing in it. No woman would remain with a man who
did not give her a garden and a hoe to dig it with ; if these
were denied her, she would seek an early opportunity to
escape from her husband and return to her relations to
complain of her treatment, and to obtain justice or a
divorce. When a man married he sought a plot of land
for his wife in order that she might settle to work and
provide food for the household. ... In initial clearing of
the land it was customary for the husband to take part ;
he cut down the tall grass and shrubs, and so left the
ground ready for his wife to begin her digging. The grass
and the trees she heaped up and burned, reserving only so
much as she needed for firewood. A hoe was the only
implement used in cultivation ; the blade was heart-shaped
with a prong at the base, by which it was fastened to the
handle. The hoe-handle was never more than two feet long,
so that a woman had to stoop when using it."* In Kiziba,
a district immediately to the south of Uganda, the tilling of
the soil is exclusively the work of the women. They turn
up the soil with hoes, make holes in the ground with
digging-sticks or their fingers, and drop a few seeds into
» M.W. H. Beech, The Siik {OySoxdi, 3 jr, Stuhlmann, op. cit. p. 75.
191 1), p. 33. 4 Rev. J. Roscoe, The Baganda
2 F. Stuhlmann, Mit Emitt Pascha (London, 1911), pp. 426, 427; com-
ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), pare pp. 5, 38, 91 sq., 93, 94, 95,
p. 36. 268.
IV WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 119
each hole/ Among the Niam-Niam of Central Africa " the
men most studiously devote themselves to their hunting,
and leave the culture of the soil to be carried on exclusively
by the women " ; ^ and among the Monbuttoo of the same
region in like manner, " whilst the women attend to the
tillage of the soil and the gathering of the harvest, the men,
unless they are absent either for war or hunting, spend the
entire day in idleness." ^ As to the Bangala of the Upper Agricui-
Congo we read that " large farms were made around the *"''^' ^^'^'^^
° ° of women
towns. The men did the clearing of the bush, felling the on the
trees, and cutting down the undergrowth ; the women °°^°'
worked with them, heaping up the grass and brushwood
ready for burning, and helping generally. As a rule the
women did the hoeing, planting, and weeding, but the men
did not so despise this w-ork as never to do it." In this
tribe " the food belonged to the woman who cultivated the
farm, and while she supplied her husband with the vege-
table food, he had to supply the fish and meat and share
them with his wife or wives."* Amongst the Tofoke, a tribe
of the Congo State on the equator, all the field labour,
except the clearing away of the forest, is performed by the
women. They dig the soil with a hoe and plant maize and
manioc. A field is used only once.^ So with the Ba-Mbala,
a Bantu tribe between the rivers Inzia and Kwilu, the men
clear the ground for cultivation, but all the rest of the work
of tillage falls to the women, whose only tool is an iron
hoe. Fresh ground is cleared for cultivation every year.^
The Mpongwe of the Gaboon, in West Africa, cultivate
manioc (cassava), maize, yams, plantains, sweet potatoes,
and ground nuts. When new clearings have to be made
in the forest, the men cut down and burn the trees, and the
women put in the crop. The only tool they use is a dibble,
with which they turn up a sod, put in a seed, and cover it
1 H. Rehse, Kiziba, Land unci Leute Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxix.
(Stuttgart, 1910), p. 53. (1909) PP- "7. 128.
2 G. Schweinfurth, The Heart of = E. Torday, "Der Tofoke, 'M//«^//-
^/rjVflS (London, 1878), i. 281. ««^^« der Anthropologtschen Gesell-
schaft tti Wie>t, xli. (191 1) p. 198.
3 G. Schweinfurth, op. cit. ii. 40. 6 e. Torday and T. A. Joyce,
* Rev. J. H. Weeks, " Anthropo- "Notes on the Ethnography of the
logical Notes on the Bangala of the Ba-Mbala," Journal of the Anthropo-
Upper Congo VAx^r," Journal of the logical Institute, xxxv. (1905) p. 405.
Agricul-
tural work
done by
women
among the
Indian
tribes of
South
America.
I20 WOMAN'S PART IM PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
over,^ Among the Ashira of the same region the cultiva-
tion of the soil is in the hands of the vvomen.^
A similar division of labour between men and women
prevails among many primitive agricultural tribes of Indians
in South America. " In the interior of the villages," says an
eminent authority on aboriginal South America, " the man
often absents himself to hunt or to go into the heart of the
forest in search of the honey of the wild bees, and he always
goes alone. He fells the trees in the places where he
wishes to make a field for cultivation, he fashions his
weapons, he digs out his canoe, while the woman rears the
children, makes the garments, busies herself with the
interior, cultivates the field, gathers the fruits, collects the
roots, and prepares the food. Such is, generally at least,
the respective condition of the two sexes among almost
all the Americans. The Peruvians alone had already, in
their semi-civilised state, partially modified these customs ;
for among them the man shared the toils of the other sex or
took on himself the most laborious tasks." ^ Thus, to take
examples, among the Caribs of the West Indies the men
used to fell the trees and leave the fallen trunks to cumber
the ground, burning off only the smaller boughs. Then the
women came and planted manioc, potatoes, yams, and
bananas wherever they found room among the tree-trunks.
In digging the ground to receive the seed or the shoots
they did not use hoes but simply pointed sticks. The men,
we are told, would rather have died of hunger than undertake
such agricultural labours.* Again, the staple vegetable food
of the Indians of British Guiana is cassava bread, made
from the roots of the manioc or cassava plant, which the
Indians cultivate in clearings of the forest. The men fell
the trees, cut down the undergrowth, and in dry weather set
fire to the fallen lumber, thus creating open patches in the
forest which are covered with white ashes. When the rains
* P. B. du Chaillu, Explorations
and Adventures in Eqiiato7-ial Africa
(London, 1861), p. 22.
2 P. B. du Chaillu, op. cit. p. 417.
^ A. D'Orbigny, L Homme A?niri-
cain (de l Amcriqtie Mt!ridionak) (Paris,
1839), i. 198 sq.
* Le Sieur de la Borde, "Relation
de I'Origine, Mceurs, Coustiimes,
Religion, Guerres et Voy.iges des
Caraiiies Sauvages des Isles Antilles
de I'Amerique," pp. 21-23, if* Recueil
de divers Voyages fails en Afrique et
en r Amerique (Paris, 16S4).
I
IV WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 121
set in, the women repair to these clearings, heavily laden with
baskets full of cassava sticks to be used as cuttings. These
they insert at irregular intervals in the soil, and so the field is
formed. While the cassava is growing, the women do just
as much weeding as is necessary to prevent the cultivated
plants from being choked by the rank growth of the tropical
vegetation, and in doing so they plant bananas, pumpkin
seeds, yams, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, red and yellow
peppers, and so forth, wherever there is room for them. At
last in the ninth or tenth month, when the seeds appearing
on the straggling branches of the cassava plants announce
that the roots are ripe, the women cut down the plants and
dig up the roots, not all at once, but as they are required.
These roots they afterwards peel, scrape, and bake into
cassava bread.^
In like manner the cassava or manioc plant is cultivated Cultivation
generally among all the Indian tribes of tropical South by women
America, wherever the plant will grow ; and the cultivation among the
of it is altogether in the hands of the women, who insert the tHb«"of
sticks in the ground after the fashion already described.^ tropical
For example, among the tribes of the Uaupes River, in the America.
upper valley of the Amazon, who are an agricultural people
with settled abodes, " the men cut down the trees and
brushwood, which, after they have lain some months to
dry, are burnt ; and the mandiocca is then planted by the
women, together with little patches of cane, sweet potatoes,
and various fruits. The women also dig up the mandiocca,
and prepare from it the bread which is their main sub-
sistence. . . . The bread is made fresh every day, as when
it gets cold and dry it is far less palatable. The women
thus have plenty to do, for every other day at least they
have to go to the field, often a mile or two distant, to fetch
the root, and every day to grate, prepare, and bake the
bread ; as it forms by far the greater part of their food, and
they often pass days without eating anything else, especially
1 E. F. im Thurn, A»iong the economic importance of the manioc or
Indians of Guiana (London, 1883), cassava plant in the life of the South
pp. 250 sqq., 260 sqq. American Indians, see further E. J.
2 C. F. Phil. V. Martins, Zz<r^//;«o- Payne, History of the New World
grnphie Amerikds, zutnal Brasiliens called America, i. (Oxford, 1892) pp.
(Leipsic, 1867), pp. 486-4S9. On the 310 sqq., 312 sq.
122 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
Agricul-
tural work
done by
women
among
savage
tribes in
India, New
Guinea,
and New
Britain.
when the men are engaged in clearing the forest." ^ Among
the Tupinambas, a tribe of Brazihan Indians, the wives
" had something more than their due share of labour, but
they were not treated with brutality, and their condition was
on the whole happy. They set and dug the mandioc ; they
sowed and gathered the maize. An odd superstition pre-
vailed, that if a sort of earth-almond, which the Portugueze
call amendoens, was planted by the men, it would not grow." ^
Similar accounts appear to apply to the Brazilian Indians
in general : the men occupy themselves with hunting, war,
and the manufacture of their weapons, while the women
plant and reap the crops, and search for fruits in the forest ; ^
above all they cultivate the manioc, scraping the soil clear of
weeds with pointed sticks and inserting the shoots in the
earth.* Similarly among the Indians of Peru, who cultivate
maize in clearings of the forest, the cultivation of the fields
is left to the women, while the men hunt with bows and
arrows and blowguns in the woods, often remaining away
from home for weeks or even months together.^
A similar distribution of labour between the sexes prevails
among some savage tribes in other parts of the world.
Thus among the Lhoosai of south-eastern India the men
employ themselves chiefly in hunting or in making forays
on their weaker neighbours, but they clear the ground and
help to carry home the harvest. However, the main burden
of the bodily labour by which life is supported falls on the
women ; they fetch water, hew wood, cultivate the ground.
^ A. R. Wallace, Narrative of
Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro
(London, 1889), pp. 336, 337 [The
Mineti)a Library). Mr. Wallace's
account of the agriculture of these
tribes is entirely confirmed by the
observations of a recent explorer in
north western Brazil. See Th. Koch-
Griinberg, Zicei Jahre unter den
Indianern (Berlin, 1909- 19 10), ii.
202-209; ^^-i " Frauenarbeit bei den
Indianern Nordwest-Brasiliens," Mit-
teilungen der Anthropologischen Gesell-
schaft in IVien, xxxviii. (1908) pp.
172-174. This writer tells us [Zwei
Jahre unter den Indianern, ii. 203)
that these Indians determine the time
for planting by observing certain con-
stellations, especially the Pleiades.
The rainy season begins when the
Pleiades have disappeared below the
horizon. See Note at end of the
volume.
2 R. Southey, History of Brazil,
vol. i. Second Edition (London, 1822),
p. 253.
' J. B. von Spix und C. F. Ph.
von Martius, Reise in Brasilien
(Munich, 1823-1831), i. 381.
* K. von den Steinen, Unter
den Nattirvblkern Zentral-Brasiliens
(Berlin, 1894), p. 214.
6 J, J. von Tschudi, Peru (St.
Gallen, 1846), ii. 214.
IV WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 123
and help to reap the crops/ Among the Miris of Assam
almost the whole of the field work is done by the women.
They cultivate a patch of ground for two successive years,
then suffer it to lie fallow for four or five. But they are
deterred by superstitious fear from breaking new ground so
long as the fallow suffices for their needs ; they dread to
offend the spirits of the woods by needlessly felling the
trees. They raise crops of rice, maize, millet, yams, and
sweet potatoes. But they seldom possess any implement
adapted solely for tillage ; they have never taken to the
plough nor even to a hoe. They use their long straight
swords to clear, cut, and dig with.^ Among the Korwas, a
savage hill tribe of Bengal, the men hunt with bows and
arrows, while the women till the fields, dig for wild roots, or
cull wild vegetables. Their principal crop is pulse {Cajaniis
Indicus)? Among the Papuans of Ayambori, near Doreh
in Dutch New Guinea, it is the men who lay out the fields
by felling and burning the trees and brushwood in the
forest, and it is they who enclose the fields with fences, but
it is the women who sow and reap them and carry home
the produce in sacks on their backs. They cultivate rice,
millet, and bananas.* So among the natives of Kaimani
Bay in Dutch New Guinea the men occupy themselves only
with fishing and hunting, while all the field work falls on
the women.^ In the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain,
when the natives have decided to convert a piece of grass-
land into a plantation, the men cut down the long grass,
burn it, dig up the soil with sharp-pointed sticks, and enclose
the land with a fence of saplings. Then the women plant
the banana shoots, weed the ground, and in the intervals
between the bananas insert slips of yams, sweet potatoes,
sugar-cane, or ginger. When the produce is ripe, they carry
it to the village. Thus the bulk of the labour of cultivation
devolves on the women.®
1 Captain T. H. Lewin, Wild Races * Nieuw Guinea, ethnographisch en
of Sozith-Easlertt India (London, iS^o), natnurkiindig onderzocht en beschreven
p. 255. (Amsterdam, 1862), p. 159.
2 E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethno- ^ Op. cit. p. 119; H. von Rosen-
logy of Bengal (Calcutta, 1872), \)^x^, Der Malayische Archipel (L,€\'^%\z,
p. 33- 1878), p. 433.
3 E. T. Dalton, op. cit. pp. 226, ^ P. A. Kleintitschen, Die Kiisten-
227. bewohner der Gazellekalbinsel {\i\\\.x\\Y>
124 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
Division of
agricul-
tural work
between
men and
women in
the Indian
Archi-
pelago.
Among
savages
who have
not learned
to till the
ground the
task of
collecting
the vege-
Among some peoples of the Indian Archipelago, after
the land has been cleared for cultivation by the men, the
work of planting and sowing is divided between men and
women, the men digging holes in the ground with pointed
sticks, and the women following them, putting the seeds or
shoots into the holes, and then huddling the earth over
them ; for savages seldom sow broadcast, they laboriously
dig holes and insert the seed in them. This division of
agricultural labour between the sexes is adopted by various
tribes of Celebes, Ceram, Borneo, Nias, and New Guinea.^
Sometimes the custom of entrusting the sowing of the seed
to women appears to be influenced by superstitious as well as
economic considerations. Thus among the Indians of the
Orinoco, who with an infinitude of pains cleared the jungle
for cultivation by cutting down the forest trees with their
stone axes, burning the fallen lumber, and breaking up the
ground with wooden instruments hardened in the fire, the
task of sowing the maize and planting the roots was
performed by the women alone ; and when the Spanish
missionaries expostulated with the men for not helping their
wives in this toilsome duty, they received for answer that as
women knew how to conceive seed and bear children, so the
seeds and roots planted by them bore fruit far more
abundantly than if they had been planted by male hands.^
Even among savages who have not yet learned to
cultivate any plants the task of collecting the edible seeds
and digging up the edible roots of wild plants appears to
devolve mainly on women, while the men contribute their
share to the common food supply by hunting and fishing,
for which their superior strength, agility, and courage especi-
bei Miinster, preface dated Christmas, Seventeeji Years among the Sea Dyaks
1906), pp. 60 sq.; G. Brown, D.D.
Melanesians and Polynesians (London,
19 10), pp. 324 sq.
1 A. C. Kruijt, " Een en ander
aangaande bet geestelijk en maat-
schappelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,"
Mededeelingett van wege het Neder-
landsche Zendelingoenootschap, xxxix.
(1895) PP- 132. 134; J- Boot, "Korte
schets der noordkust van Ceram,"
Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch
Aardrijkskuiidig Genootschap, Tweede
Serie, x. (1893) p. 672 ; E. H. Gomes,
of Borneo (London, 1911), p. 46 ; E.
Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nias{},\\\3.n,
1890), pp. 590 sq.; K. Vetter, Komin
her liber und hilf tins! Heft 2
(Barmen, 1898), pp. 6sq.; Cb. Keysser,
" Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in
R. Neuhauss, Deutsch Neu-Guinea,
iii. (Berlin, 191 1) pp. 14, 85.
2 J. Gumilla, Histoire Naiurelle,
Civile et G^ographique de POrMoqiie
(Avignon, 1758), ii. 166 sqq., 183 sqq.
Compare The Alagic Art and the
Evolution of Kings, i. 139 sqq.
IV JVOMAAPS PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 125
ally qualify them. For example, among the Indians of table food
California, who were entirely isjnorant of agriculture, the '" '^^^ Z'^''"'
' y & 25 > of Wild
general division of labour between the sexes in the search seeds and
for food was that the men killed the game and caught the Leneraii
salmon, while the women dug the roots and brought in devolves on
most of the vegetable food, though the men helped them to Examples
gather acorns, nuts, and berries.^ Among the Indians of furnished
San Juan Capistrano in California, while the men passed caiifornian
their time in fowling, fishing, dancing, and lounging, " the ^nf^'ans.
women were obliged to gather seeds in the fields, prepare
them for cooking, and to perform all the meanest offices, as
well as the most laborious. It was painful in the extreme,
to behold them, with their infants hanging upon their
shoulders, groping about in search of herbs or seeds, and
exposed as they frequently were to the inclemency of the
weather." " Yet these rude savages possessed a calendar
containing directions as to the seasons for collecting the
diiTerent seeds and produce of the earth. The calendar
consisted of lunar months corrected by observation of the
solstices, " for at the conclusion of the moon in December,
that is, at the conjunction, they calculated the return of the
sun from the tropic of Capricorn ; and another year com-
menced, the Indian saying 'the sun has arrived at his home.'
. . . They observed with greater attention and celebrated
with more pomp, the sun's arrival at the tropic of Capricorn
than they did his reaching the tropic of Cancer, for the
reason, that, as they were situated ten degrees from the .
latter, they were pleased at the sun's approach towards
them ; for it returned to ripen their fruits and seeds, to give
warmth to the atmosphere, and enliven again the fields with
beauty and increase." However, the knowledge of the calendar
was limited to ihe pupleni or general council of the tribe, who
sent criers to make proclamation when the time had come
to go forth and gather the seeds and other produce of the
earth. In their calculations they were assisted by a pul or
1 S. Powers, Tribes of California writer observes of these Indians that
(Washington, 1S77), p. 23. "they neither cultivated the ground,
2 Father Geronimo Boscana, "Chin- nor planted any kind of grain; but
igchinich," in [A. Robinson's] Life in lived upon the wild seeds of the field,
California (New York, 1846), p. 287. the fruits of the forest, and upon the
Elsewhere the same well-informed abundance of game " (pp. cit. p. 285).
126 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
Among the
aborigines
of Aus-
tralia the
women
provided
the vege-
table food,
while the
men
hunted.
astrologer, who observed the aspect of the moon/ When
we consider that these rude CaHfornian savages, destitute
alike of agriculture and of the other arts of civilised life, yet
succeeded in forming for themselves a calendar based on
observation both of the moon and of the sun, we need not
hesitate to ascribe to the immeasurably more advanced
Greeks at the dawn of history the knowledge of a some-
what more elaborate calendar founded on a cycle of eight
solar years.^
Among the equally rude aborigines of Australia, to
whom agriculture in every form was totally unknown, the
division of labour between the sexes in regard to the collec-
tion of food appears to have been similar. While the men
hunted game, the labour of gathering and preparing the
vegetable food fell chiefly to the women. Thus with regard
to the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia we are told
that while the men busied themselves, according to the
season, either with fishing or with hunting emus, opossums,
kangaroos, and so forth, the women and children searched
for roots and plants.^ Again, among the natives of Western
Australia " it is generally considered the province of women
to dig roots, and for this purpose they carry a long, pointed
stick, which is held in the right hand, and driven firmly
into the ground, where it is shaken, so as to loosen the
earth, which is scooped up and thrown out with the fingers
of the left hand, and in this manner they dig with great
rapidity. But the labour, in proportion to the amount
obtained, is great. To get a yam about half an inch in
circumference and a foot in length, they have to dig a hole
above a foot square and two feet in depth ; a considerable
portion of the time of the women and children is, therefore,
passed in this employment. If the men are absent upon
any expedition, the females are left in charge of one who is
^ Father Geronimo Boscana, op. cit.
pp. 302-305. As to the puple?!!, see
id. p. 264. The writer says that criers
informed the people " when to cultivate
their fields" (p. 302). But taken
along with his express statement that
they "neither cultivated the ground,
nor planted any kind of grain " (p. 285,
see above, p. 125 note-), this expres-
sion " to cultivate their fields " must
be understood loosely to denote merely
the gathering of the wild seeds and
fruits.
- See above, pp. 81 sq.
3 H. E. A. Meyer, " Manners and
Customs of the Encounter Bay Tribe,"
in Native Tribes of South Australia
(Adelaide, 1879), pp. 191 sq.
IV PVOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 127
old or sick ; and in traversing the bush you often stumble
on a large party of them, scattered about in the forest,
digging roots and collecting the different species of fungus," ^
In fertile districts, where the yams which the aborigines use
as food grow abundantly, the ground may sometimes be seen
riddled with holes made by the women in their search for
these edible roots. Thus to quote Sir George Grey : " We
now crossed the dry bed of a stream, and from that emerged
upon a tract of light fertile soil, quite overrun with warran
[yam] plants, the root of which is a favourite article of food
with the natives. This was the first time we had yet seen
this plant on our journey, and now for three and a half con-
secutive miles we traversed a fertile piece of land, literally
perforated with the holes the natives had made to dig this
root ; indeed we could with difficulty walk across it on that
account, whilst this tract extended east and west as far as
we could see." ^ Again, in the valley of the Lower Murray
River a kind of yam {Mtcroseris Forsteri) grew plentifully
and was easily found in the spring and early summer, when
the roots were dug up out of the earth by the women and
children. The root is small and of a sweetish taste and
grows throughout the greater part of Australia outside
the tropics ; on the alpine pastures of the high Australian
mountains it attains to a much larger size and furnishes a
not unpalatable food,^ But the women gather edible herbs
and seeds as well as roots ; and at evening they may be
seen trooping in to the camp, each with a great bundle of
sow-thistles, dandelions, or trefoil on her head,* or carrying
wooden vessels filled with seeds, which they afterwards
grind up between stones and knead into a paste with water
or bake into cakes.^ Among the aborigines of central
Victoria, while the men hunted, the women dug up edible
^ (Sir) George Grey, /otir/ials of of Victoria (Melbourne, 1878), i. 209.
Two Expeditions of Discovery in ■* P. Beveridge, " Of the Aborigines
North- West and Western Australia inhabiting the Great Lacustrine and
(London, 1 841), ii. 292 sq. The Riverine Depression of tlie Lower
women also collect the nuts from the Murray, Lower Murrumbidgee, Lower
palms in the month of March {id. Lachlan, and Lower Darling,"y(7?/;-«a/
ii. 296). and Proceedittgs of the Royal Society of
^ (Sir) George Grey, op. cit. ii. 12. Nerv South Wales for i88j, vol. xvii.
The yam referred to is a species of (Sydney, 1884) p. 36.
Diascorea, like the sweet potato. ^ R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines
^ R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. 214.
128 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE chap.
roots and gathered succulent vegetables, such as the young
tops of the immya, the sow-thistle, and several kinds of fig-
marigold. The implement which they used to dig up roots
with was a pole seven or eight feet long, hardened in the
fire and pointed at the end, which also served them as a
weapon both of defence and of offence.^ Among the tribes of
Central Australia the principal vegetable food is the seed of
a species of Claytonia, called by white men mmijeru, which
the women gather in large quantities and winnow by pouring
the little black seeds from one vessel to another so as to let
the wind blow the loose husks away.^
The In these customs observed by savages who are totally
^'SS'ng of ignorant of agriculture we may perhaps detect some of the
for wild steps by which mankind have advanced from the enjoyment
havMecTL °^ ^'^^ ^^^^^ fruits of the earth to the systematic cultivation
the origin of plants. For an effect of digging up the earth in the
culture search for roots has probably been in many cases to enrich
and fertilise the soil and so to increase the crop of roots or
herbs ; and such an increase would naturally attract the
natives in larger numbers and enable them to subsist for
longer periods on the spot without being compelled by the
speedy exhaustion of the crop to shift their quarters and
wander away in search of fresh supplies. Moreover, the
winnowing of the seeds on ground which had thus been
turned up by the digging-sticks of the women would naturally
contribute to the same result. For though savages at the
level of the Californian Indians and the aborigines of
Australia have no idea of using seeds for any purpose but
that of immediate consumption, and it has never occurred to
them to incur a temporary loss for the sake of a future gain
by sowing them in the ground, yet it is almost certain that
in the process of winnowing the seeds as a preparation for
eating them many of the grains must have escaped and,
being wafted by the wind, have fallen on the upturned soil
and borne fruit. Thus by the operations of turning up the
ground and winnowing the seed, though neither operation
1 W. Stanbridge, " Some Particulars hgica/ Society of LoJiiion,l^.S.,\. (i?>6i)
of the General Characteristics, Astro- p. 291.
nomy, and Mythology of the Tribes in 2 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen,
the Central Part of Victoria, South Native Tribes of Central Australia
Australia," Transactions of the Ethuo- (London, 1899), p. 22.
IV IFOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE 129
aimed at anything beyond satisfying the immediate pangs
of hunger, savage man or rather savage woman was uncon-
sciously preparing for the whole community a future and
more abundant store of food, which would enable them to
multiply and to abandon the old migratory and wasteful
manner of life for a more settled and economic mode of
existence. So curiously sometimes does man, aiming his
shafts at a near but petty mark, hit a greater and more
distant target.
On the whole, then, it appears highly probable that as a The dis-
consequence of a certain natural division of labour between agrTJuimre
the sexes women have contributed more than men towards due mainly
the greatest advance in economic history, namely, the
transition from a nomadic to a settled life, from a natural to
an artificial basis of subsistence.
Among the Aryan peoples of Europe the old practice women as
of hoeing the ground as a preparation for sowing appears to ^fp^i"
have been generally replaced at a very remote period by labourers
the far more effective process of ploughing ; ^ and as the Aryan's of
labour of ploughing practically necessitates the employment Europe.
of masculine strength, it is hardly to be expected that in
Europe many traces should remain of the important part
formerly played by women in primitive agriculture. How-
ever, we are told that among the Iberians of Spain and the
Athamanes of Epirus the women tilled the ground,^ and
that among the ancient Germans the care of the fields was
left to the women and old men.^ But these indications of The Greek
an age when the cultivation of the ground was committed ofthe'^"""
mainly to feminine hands are few and slight ; and if the Corn
Greek conception of Demeter as a goddess of corn and probably
agriculture really dates from such an age and was directly originated
1 ,• • • r 1 1 1 1 . in a .simple
suggested by such a division ot labour between the sexes, it per
' O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indo- of a plough drawn by oxen and guided
gennanischen Altertiimskunde (Stras- by a ploughman : it is believed to date
burg, 1901), pp. 6 sqq., 62,0 sgq. ; id., from the Bronze Age, See H. Hirt,
Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte^ op. cit. i. 286.
(Jena, 1905- 1907), ii- 201 sqq. ; H. , ^^^^^ ... ^^^ ^g^ . Heracli-
Hirt, Bie Indogermanen, 1. 251 sqq., ^^^ Ponticus, "De rebus puhlicis," 33,
263, 274. The use of oxen to draw j^ Fragmenta Historkorum Graecorum,
the plough IS very ancient in Europe. ^^ ^ j^.-j,^^^ jj_
(Jn the rocks at Bohuslan in Sweden
there is carved a rude representation ^ Tacitus, Germaiiia, 15.
PT. V. VOL. 1 K
;rsoni-
fication of
the corn.
I30 WOMAN'S PART IN PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE ch. iv
seems clear that its origin must be sought at a period far
back in the history of the Aryan race, perhaps long before
the segregation of the Greeks from the common stock and
their formation into a separate people. It may be so, but
to me I confess that this derivation of the conception appears
somewhat far-fetched and improbable ; and I prefer to sup-
pose that the idea of the corn as feminine was suggested
to the Greek mind, not by the position of women in remote
prehistoric ages, but by a direct observation of nature, the
teeming head of corn appearing to the primitive fancy to
resemble the teeming womb of a woman, and the ripe ear
on the stalk being likened to a child borne in the arms or
on the back of its mother. At least we know that similar
sights suggest similar ideas to some of the agricultural
negroes of West Africa. Thus the Hos of Togoland, who
plant maize in February and reap it in July, say that the
maize is an image of a mother ; when the cobs are forming,
the mother is binding the infant on her back, but in July
she sinks her head and dies and the child is taken away
from her, to be afterwards multiplied at the next sowing.^
When the rude aborigines of Western Australia observe that
a seed-bearing plant has flowered, they call it the Mother of
So-and-so, naming the particular kind of plant, and they
will not allow it to be dug up.^ Apparently they think that
respect and regard are due to the plant as to a mother and
her child. Such simple and natural comparisons, which
may occur to men in any age and country, suffice to
explain the Greek personification of the corn as mother and
daughter, and we need not cast about for more recondite
theories. Be that as it may, the conception of the corn as
a woman and a mother was certainly not peculiar to the
ancient Greeks, but has been shared by them with many
other races, as will appear abundantly from the instances
which I shall cite in the following chapter.
^ J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stdmme (Ber- Expeditions of Discovery in North-tvest
lin, 1906), p. 313. and ^Vestern^usiraiia (London, 1S41),
2
(Sir) G. Grey, Journals of Two ii. 292.
CHAPTER V
THE CORN-MOTHER AND THE CORN-MAIDEN IN
NORTHERN EUROPE
It has been argued by W. Mannhardt that the first part Suggested
of Demeter's name is derived from an alleged Cretan word ofthe^name
deal, " barley," and that accordingly Demeter means neither Demeter.
more nor less than " Barley-mother " or " Corn-mother " ; ^
for the root of the word seems to have been applied to
different kinds of grain by different branches of the Aryans.^
As Crete appears to have been one of the most ancient
seats of the worship of Demeter,^ it would not be surprising
if her name were of Cretan origin. But the etymology is
open to serious objections,* and it is safer therefore to lay
no stress on it. Be that as it may, we have found inde-
pendent reasons for identifying Demeter as the Corn-mother,
and of the two species of corn associated with her in Greek
^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen (Strasburg, 1884), pp.
292 sqq. See above, p. 40, note ^.
* O. Schrader, Reallexikon der indo-
gerniattischen Allertiimskuiide (Stras-
burg, 1 90 1), pp. II, 289 ; id., Sprach-
vergleichung und Urgeschichte'^ (Jena,
1890), pp. 409, 422; id., Sprachver-
gleichung und Urgeschichte ^ (Jena,
1 905- 1 907), ii. 188 sq. Compare V.
Hehn, Ktiltnrpflanzen ti>id Haiisthiere
in ihrem Uebergang mis Asicti ^ (Berlin,
1902), pp. 58 sq.
^ Hesiod, Theog. 969 sqq. ; F.
Lenormant, in Dareniberg et Saglio,
Dictionnaire des Antiquitds Grecqiies
et Romaines, i. 2, p. 1029 ; Kern, in
Pauly - Wissowa's Real - Encydopddie
der classischen Altertumswissenschaft,
iv. 2, coll. 2720 sq.
■* My friend Professor J. H. Moulton
tells me that there is great doubt as to
the existence of a word ^t\a'i, " barley "
{Etymologicutn Magnum, p. 264, lines
12 sq.), and that the common form of
Demeter's name, Ddmater (except in
Ionic and Attic) is inconsistent with i)
in the supposed Cretan form. ' ' Finally
if oi]ai = ^€iai, you are bound to regard
her as a Cretan goddess, or as arising
in some other area where the dialect
changed Indogermanic y into 5 and
not f : since Ionic and Attic have f,
tlie two crucial letters of the name tell
different tales " (Professor J. H.
Moulton, in a letter to me, dated 19
December 1903),
131
132
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The Corn-
mothcr
among the
Germans
and the
Slavs.
religion, namely barley and wheat, the barley has perhaps
the better claim to be her original element ; for not only
would it seem to have been the staple food of the Greeks in
the Homeric age, but there are grounds for believing that it
is one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, cereal cultivated
by the Aryan race. Certainly the use of barley in the
religious ritual of the ancient Hindoos as well as of the
ancient Greeks furnishes a strong argument in favour of the
great antiquity of its cultivation, which is known to have
been practised by the lake-dwellers of the Stone Age in
Europe.^
Analogies to the Corn -mother or Barley -mother of
ancient Greece have been collected in great abundance by
W. Mannhardt from the folk-lore of modern Europe. The
following may serve as specimens.
In Germany the corn is very commonly personified
under the name of the Corn-mother. Thus in spring, when
the corn waves in the wind, the peasants say, " There comes
the Corn-mother," or " The Corn-mother is running over the
field," or " The Corn-mother is going through the corn." ^
When children wish to go into the fields to pull the blue
corn-flowers or the red poppies, they are told not to do so,
because the Corn-mother is sitting in the corn and will
catch them.^ Or again she is called, according to the crop,
the Rye-mother or the Pea-mother, and children are warned
against straying in the rye or among the peas by threats of
the Rye-mother or the Pea-mother. In Norway also the
Pea-mother is said to sit among the peas.* Similar
expressions are current among the Slavs. The Poles and
1 A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des
Feuers titid des Gdttertratiks ^ (Guters-
loh, 1886), pp. 68 s^. ; O. Schrader,
Reallexikon der indogermajtiscken
Altertumskunde, pp. Ii, 12, 289; id.,
Sprachvergleichung uitd Urgesckickte,'^
ii. 189, 191, 197 sq. ; H. Hirt, Die
Indogermanen (Strasbuig, 1905-1907),
i. 276 sqq. In the oldest Vedic ritual
barley and not rice is the cereal chiefly
employed. See H. Oldenberg, Die
Religion des Fi?^a(Berlin, 1894), p. 353.
For evidence that barley was cultivated
in Europe by the lake-dwellers of the
Stone Age, see A. de Candolle, Origin
of Cultivated Plants (London, 1884),
pp. 368, 369 ; R. Munro, The Lake-
dwellings of Europe (London, Paris,
and Melbourne, 1890), pp. 497 sq.
According to Pliny {Nat. Hist, xviii.
72) barley was the oldest of all foods.
2 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen (Strasburg, 1884), p. 296.
Compare O. Hartung, " Zur Volks-
kunde aus Anhalt," Zeitschrift des
Vereins fitr Volkskunde, vii. (1897)
p. 150.
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschtingen {^X.x^'sowxg, 1884), p. 297.
* Ibid. pp. 297 sq.
V CORN- MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 133
Czechs warn children against the Corn-mother who sits in
the corn. Or they call her the old Corn-woman, and say
that she sits in the corn and strangles the children who
tread it down.^ The Lithuanians say, " The Old Rye-
woman sits in the corn." ^ Again the Corn-mother is
believed to make the crop grow. Thus in the neighbour-
hood of Magdeburg it is sometimes said, " It will be a good
year for flax ; the Flax- mother has been seen." At
Dinkelsbiihl, in Bavaria, down to the latter part of the nine-
teenth century, people believed that when the crops on a
particular farm compared unfavourably with those of the
neighbourhood, the reason was that the Corn-mother had
punished the farmer for his sins.^ In a village of Styria it is
said that the Corn-mother, in the shape of a female puppet
made out of the last sheaf of corn and dressed in white, may
be seen at midnight in the corn-fields, which she fertilises
by passing through them ; but if she is angry with a farmer,
she withers up all his corn.*
Further, the Corn-mother plays an important part in The Corn-
harvest customs. She is believed to be present in the "j^°iasV°
handful of corn which is left standing last on the field ; and sheaf.
with the cutting of this last handful she is caught, or driven
away, or killed. In the first of these cases, the last sheaf
is carried joyfully home and honoured as a divine being.
It is placed in the barn, and at threshing the corn-spirit
appears again.^ In the Hanoverian district of Hadeln the
reapers stand round the last sheaf and beat it with sticks
in order to drive the Corn-mother out of it. They call to
each other, " There she is ! hit her ! Take care she doesn't
catch you ! " The beating goes on till the grain is com-
pletely threshed out ; then the Corn-mother is believed to
be driven away.^ In the neighbourhood of Danzig the
person who cuts the last ears of corn makes them into a
doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old Woman
and is brought home on the last waggon." In some parts
^ Ibid. p. 299. Compare R. Andree, Forschiingeit, p. 310.
Brazinschweiger Volkskimde (Bruns- * Ibid. pp. 310 sq. Compare O.
wick, 1896), p. 281. Hartung, I.e.
2 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische ^ W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 316.
Forschungen, p. 300. '° Ibid. p. 316.
^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische ^ Ibid. pp. 316 sq.
134
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
Fertilising
power of
the Corn-
mother.
of Holstein the last sheaf is dressed in woman's clothes and
called the Corn-mother. It is carried home on the last
waggon, and then thoroughly drenched with water. The
drenching with water is doubtless a rain-charm.^ In the
district of Bruck in Styria the last sheaf, called the Corn-
mother, is made up into the shape of a woman by the
oldest married woman in the village, of an age from fifty to
fifty-five years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and
made into a wreath, which, twined with flowers, is carried on
her head by the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or
squire, while the Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to
keep off the mice.^ In other villages of the same district
the Corn- mother, at the close of harvest, is carried by two
lads at the top of a pole. They march behind the girl who
wears the wreath to the squire's house, and while he receives
the wreath and hangs it up in the hall, the Corn-mother is
placed on the top of a pile of wood, where she is the centre
of the harvest supper and dance. Afterwards she is hung
up in the barn and remains there till the threshing is over.
The man who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the
son of the Corn-mother ; he is tied up in the Corn-mother,
beaten, and carried through the village. The wreath is
dedicated in church on the following Sunday ; and on
Easter Eve the grain is rubbed out of it by a seven-years-
old girl and scattered amongst the young corn. At Christ-
mas the straw of the wreath is placed in the manger to
make the cattle thrive.^ Here the fertilising power of the
Corn-mother is plainly brought out by scattering the seed
taken from her body (for the wreath is made out of the
Corn-mother) among the new corn ; and her influence over
animal life is indicated by placing the straw in the manger.
At Westerhijsen, in Saxony, the last corn cut is made in the
shape of a woman decked with ribbons and cloth. It is
fastened to a pole and brought home on the last waggon.
One of the people in the waggon keeps waving the pole,
so that the figure moves as if alive. It is placed on the
threshing-floor, and stays there till the threshing is done.'*
1 Ibid. p. 317. As to such rain- Forschungen, p. 317.
charms see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, ■>. tu-j »,» -
o J ■I-' 1 • • Jotd. pp. 317 SQ.
Second Edition, pp. 195-197. rr j / i
- W. Mannhardt, Mythologische * Ibid. p. 318,
V CORA-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 135
Amongst the Slavs also the last sheaf is known as the The Corn-
Rye - mother, the Wheat - mother, the Oats - mother, the "j^f f^^t '°
Barley-mother, and so on, according to the crop. In the sheaf
district of Tarnow, Galicia, the wreath made out of the last siavs and^
stalks is called the Wheat -mother. Rye-mother, or Pea- '" France.
mother. It is placed on a girl's head and kept till spring,
when some of the grain is mixed with the seed-corn.^ Here
again the fertilising power of the Corn-mother is indicated.
In France, also, in the neighbourhood of Auxerre, the last
sheaf goes by the name of the Mother of the Wheat, Mother
of the Barley, Mother of the Rye, or Mother of the Oats.
They leave it standing in the field till the last waggon is
about to wend homewards. Then they make a puppet out
of it, dress it with clothes belonging to the farmer, and adorn
it with a crown and a blue or white scarf. A branch of a tree
is stuck in the breast of the puppet, which is now called the
Ceres. At the dance in the evening the Ceres is set in the
middle of the floor, and the reaper who reaped fastest dances
round it with the prettiest girl for his partner. After the
dance a pyre is made. All the girls, each wearing a wreath,
strip the puppet, pull it to pieces, and place it on the pyre,
along with the flowers with which it was adorned. Then
the girl who was the first to finish reaping sets fire to the
pile, and all pray that Ceres may give a fruitful year. Here,
as Mannhardt observes, the old custom has remained intact,
though the name Ceres is a bit of schoolmaster's learning.^
In Upper Brittany the last sheaf is always made into human
shape ; but if the farmer is a married man, it is made double
and consists of a little corn-puppet placed inside of a large
one. This is called the Mother-sheaf It is delivered to the
farmer's wife, who unties it and gives drink-money in return.^
Sometimes the last sheaf is called, not the Corn-mother, The
but the Harvest - mother or the Great Mother. In the "o^'hefor
province of Osnabrlick, Hanover, it is called the Harvest- the Great
mother ; it is made up in female form, and then the reapers jj^g [^^
dance about with it. In some parts of Westphalia the last sheaf.
sheaf at the rye-harvest is made especially heavy by fastening
^ Ibid. 3 P. Sebillot, Coufumes populaires
2 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. pp. 318 de la Haute- Bretagne (Paris, 1886),
sq. p. 306.
136
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The
Grand-
mother in
the last
sheaf.
The Old
Woman or
the Old
Man in the
last sheaf.
stones in it. They bring it home on the last waggon
and call it the Great Mother, though they do not fashion
it into any special shape. In the district of Erfurt a very
heavy sheaf, not necessarily the last, is called the Great
Mother, and is carried on the last waggon to the barn,
where all hands lift it down amid a fire of jokes.^
Sometimes again the last sheaf is called the Grand-
mother, and is adorned with flowers, ribbons, and a woman's
apron. In East Prussia, at the rye or wheat harvest, the
reapers call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf,
" You are getting the Old Grandmother." In the neigh-
bourhood of Magdeburg the men and women servants strive
who shall get the last sheaf, called the Grandmother. Who-
ever gets it will be married in the next year, but his or
her spouse will be old ; if a girl gets it, she will marry a
widower ; if a man gets it, he will marry an old crone. In
Silesia the Grandmother — a huge bundle made up of three
or four sheaves by the person who tied the last sheaf — was
formerly fashioned into a rude likeness of the human form.^
In the neighbourhood of Belfast the last sheaf sometimes
goes by the name of the Granny. It is not cut in the usual
way, but all the reapers throw their sickles at it and try to
bring it down. It is plaited and kept till the (next ?) autumn.
Whoever gets it will marry in the course of the year.^
Oftener the last sheaf is called the Old Woman or the
Old Man. In Germany it is frequently shaped and dressed
as a woman, and the person who cuts it or binds it is said to
" get the Old Woman." * At Altisheim, in Swabia, when all
the corn of a farm has been cut except a single strip, all
the reapers stand in a row before the strip ; each cuts his
share rapidly, and he who gives the last cut " has the Old
Woman." ^ When the sheaves are being set up in heaps,
the person who gets hold of the Old Woman, which is the
largest and thickest of all the sheaves, is jeered at by the
rest, who call out to him, " He has the Old Woman and
must keep her." *" The woman who binds the last sheaf is
MytJioIos^ische
' W. Mannhardt
Fotschungen, p. 319.
2 W. ' Mannhardt
Forsckttngen, p. 320.
^ Ibid. p. 321.
\ Ibid. pp. 321, 323, 325 sq.
" Ibid. p. 323 ; F. Panzer, Reit7-ag
AlythoIogiscJii- ziir dentschen Mythologie (Munich,
184S-1855), ii. p. 219, § 403.
" W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 325.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 137
sometimes herself called the Old Woman, and it is said
that she will be married in the next year.^ In Neusaass,
West Prussia, both the last sheaf — which is dressed up in
jacket, hat, and ribbons — and the woman who binds it are
called the Old Woman. Together they are brought home
on the last waggon and are drenched with water.^ In
various parts of North Germany the last sheaf at harvest is
made up into a human ^^gy and called " the Old Man ";
and the woman who bound it is said " to have the Old
Man." ^ At Hornkampe, near Tiegenhof (West Prussia),
when a man or woman lags behind the rest in binding the
corn, the other reapers dress up the last sheaf in the form of
a man or woman, and this figure goes by the laggard's
name, as " the old Michael," " the idle Trine." It is brought
home on the last waggon, and, as it nears the house, the
bystanders call out to the laggard, " You have got the Old
Woman and must keep her." ^ In Brandenburg the young
folks on the harvest-field race towards a sheaf and jump
over it. The last to jump over it has to carry a straw
puppet, adorned with ribbons, to the farmer and deliver it to
him while he recites some verses. Of the person who thus
carries the puppet it is said that " he has the Old Man."
Probably the puppet is or used to be made out of the last corn
cut.^ In many districts of Saxony the last sheaf used to be
adorned with ribbons and set upright so as to look like a
man. It was then known as " the Old Man," and the
young women brought it back in procession to the farm,
singing as they went, " Now we are bringing the Old Man." '^
In West Prussia, when the last rye is being raked The Old
together, the women and girls hurry with the work, for none ^g o?d
of them likes to be the last and to get " the Old Man," that woman i
is, a puppet made out of the last sheaf, which must be carried shLr
before the other reapers by the person who was the last
^ Ibid. p. 323. •* W. ATannhaidt, op. cit. pp. 323
2 Ibid •^^;
° H. Prahn, " Glaube und Brauch
^ A. Kuhn and W. Schwaitz, in der Mark Brandenburg," Zeitschrift
Norddeittsche Sagen, Mdrchen tind des Vereins fiir Volkskiindc, i. (189 1)
Gebrduche {l^t\i^%\c., 1848), pp. 396 sq., pp. 186 sq.
399 ; K. Bartsch, Sagen, Mdrckett und ^ K. Haiipt, Sagenbuch der Latisitz
Gebrduche aus Meklenburg (Vienna, (Leipsic, 1862- 1863), i. p. 233, No.
1879-1880), ii. 309, § 1494. 277 note.
138 CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
to finish.^ In Silesia the last sheaf is called the Old Woman
or the Old Man and is the theme of many jests ; it is made
unusually large and is sometimes weighted with a stone.
At Girlachsdorf, near Reichenbach, when this heavy sheaf is
lifted into the waggon, they say, " That is the Old Man
whom we sought for so long." ^ Among the Germans of
West Bohemia the man who cuts the last corn is said to
" have the Old Man." In former times it used to be
customary to put a wreath on his head and to play all kinds
of pranks with him, and at the harvest supper he was given
the largest portion.^ At Wolletz in Westphalia the last
sheaf at harvest is called the Old Man, and being made up
into the likeness of a man and decorated with flowers it is
presented to the farmer, who in return prepares a feast for the
reapers. About Unna, in Westphalia, the last sheaf at
harvest is made unusually large, and stones are inserted to
increase its weight. It is called de greaute meaur (the Grey
Mother?), and when it is brought home on the waggon
water is thrown on the harvesters who accompany it.*
Among the Wends the man or woman who binds the last
sheaf at wheat harvest is said to " have the Old Man."
A puppet is made out of the wheaten straw and ears in the
likeness of a man and decked with flowers. The person
who bound the last sheaf must carry the Old Man home,
while the rest laugh and jeer at him. The puppet is hung
up in the farmhouse and remains till a new Old Man is
made at the next harvest.^ At the close of the harvest the
Arabs of Moab bury the last sheaf in a grave in the corn-
field, saying as they do so, " We are burying the Old Man,"
or " The Old Man is dead." ^
identifica- In some of these customs, as Mannhardt has remarked,
harvester^ the person who is called by the same name as the last sheaf
with the and sits beside it on the last waggon is obviously identified
corn- spirit.
1 R. Krause, Sit/en, Gebrduche und < A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gebrduche und
Aberglatiben in Westpreusseii (Berlin, Mdrche7tauslVestfalen{'L,^\'^%\c,\%'^(^),
preface dated March 1904), p. 51. ii. 184, §§ 512 b, 514.
^ P. Drechsler, Sitte. Branch und h -m c u 1 1. ^tr j- t...
„,,,,.„,' ,V . . ^ W. von Schulenburc:, Wendisches
yol/isglatihe in Scnlesien (Lc\\>s,ic, IQOT,- rz tl ^u iv> r .00^? ,..,
^f .. , \ f ' y D Volksthum (Berlin, 1802), p. 147.
1906), 11. 65 sqq. ^ ' /> t^ t'
^ A. John, Sitte, Branch und ^ A. Jaussen, Couttimes des Arabes
Volksglaube im deutschen Westbohmen au pays de Aloab (Paris, 1908), pp.
(Prague, 1905), p. 189. 252 sq.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 139
with it ; he or she represents the corn-spirit which has been
caught in the last sheaf ; in other words, the corn-spirit is
represented in dupHcate, by a human being and by a sheaf.^
The identification of the person with the sheaf is made still
clearer by the custom of wrapping up in the last sheaf the
person who cuts or binds it. Thus at Hermsdorf in Silesia
it used to be the regular practice to tie up in the last sheaf
the woman who had bound it.^ At Weiden, in Bavaria, it
is the cutter, not the binder, of the last sheaf who is tied
up in it.^ Here the person wrapt up in the corn repre-
sents the corn-spirit, exactly as a person wrapt in branches
or leaves represents the tree-spirit.*
The last sheaf, designated as the Old Woman, is often The last
distinguished from the other sheaves by its size and weight. ^^^''5^21^^*'
Thus in some villages of West Prussia the Old Woman is inrge and
made twice as long and thick as a common sheaf, and a ^^^^'
stone is fastened in the middle of it. Sometimes it is made
so heavy that a man can barely lift it.^ At Alt-Pillau,
in Samland, eight or nine sheaves are often tied together
to make the Old Woman, and the man who sets it up
grumbles at its weight." At Itzgrund, in Saxe-Coburg,
the last sheaf, called the Old Woman, is made large with
the express intention of thereby securing a good crop next
year.'^ Thus the custom of making the last sheaf unusually
large or heavy is a charm, working by sympathetic magic,
to ensure a large and heavy crop at the following harvest.
In Denmark also the last sheaf is made larger than the
others, and is called the Old Rye-woman or the Old Barley-
woman. No one likes to bind it, because whoever does so
will be sure, they think, to marry an old man or an old
woman. Sometimes the last wheat-sheaf, called the Old
Wheat-woman, is made up in human shape, with head,
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie (Chem-
Forschtmgen, p. 324. nitz, 1759) mentions (p. 891) the
2 Ji,iJ_ p. ■220. German superstition that the last sheaf
-< wi -Kf u j^ ^ ■■, -.,, should be made large in order that
^ W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 321;. ,, , , t_ r
. ^ ^, . , , all the sheaves next year may be of
* See Tht Mag2C Art and the ^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^ . ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ j^^^hj^g ^
Evolution of Kings, 11. -ji^sqq. ^^ ^^^ ^j^^p^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^f the .sheaf.
5 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 324. Compare A. John, Sitte, Branch und
® Ibid. pp. 324 sq. Volksglaube im deutschen Westbohtnen
^ Ibid. p. 325. The author of Die (Prague, 1905), p. 188.
J40
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
CHAP.
The Carlin
and the
Maiden in
Scotland.
The Old
Wife(Ca27-
leach) at
harvest in
the High-
lands of
Scotland.
The Old
Wife
[Cailleach)
in the last
arms, and legs, and being dressed in clothes is carried
home on the last waggon, while the harvesters sit beside
it drinking and huzzaing.^ Of the person who binds the
last sheaf it is said, " She or he is the Old Rye-woman." ^
In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas,
the female figure made out of it was sometimes called the
Carlin or Carline, that is, the Old Woman. But if cut
before Hallowmas, it was called the Maiden ; if cut after
sunset, it was called the Witch, being supposed to bring bad
luck.^ Among the Highlanders of Scotland the last corn
cut at harvest is known either as the Old Wife {Cailleach)
or as the Maiden ; on the whole the former name seems to
prevail in the western and the latter in the central and
eastern districts. Of the Maiden we shall speak presently ;
here we are dealing with the Old Wife. The following
general account of the custom is given by a careful and
well-informed enquirer, the Rev. J. G. Campell, minister of
the remote Hebridean island of Tiree : " The Harvest Old
Wife {a ChailleacJi). — In harvest, there was a struggle to
escape from being the last done with the shearing,* and when
tillage in common existed, instances were known of a ridge
being left unshorn (no person would claim it) because of it
being behind the rest. The fear entertained was that of
having the ' famine of the farm ' {govt a hhaile), in the shape
of an imaginary old woman {cailleach), to feed till next
harvest. Much emulation and amusement arose from the
fear of this old woman. . . . The first done made a doll of
some blades of corn, which was called the ' old wife,' and
sent it to his nearest neighbour. He in turn, when ready,
passed it to another still less expeditious, and the person it
last remained with had ' the old woman ' to keep for that
year." ^
To illustrate the custom by examples, in Bernera,
on the west of Lewis, the harvest rejoicing goes by
the name of the Old Wife {Cailleach) from the last sheaf
1 W. Mannhardt, op. cii. p. 327.
2 Ibid. p. 328.
3 J. Jamieson, Dictionary of the
Scottish Language, New Edition
(Paisley, 1879-1SS2), iii. 206, s.v.
"Maiden,''; \V. Mannhardt, iJ/i////^?/^?-
gische Forschungcn, p. 326.
* That is, with the reaping.
^ Rev. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions
of the Highlands and Islands of
Scotland (Glasgow. 1 900), pp. 243 sq.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 141
cut, whether in a township, farm, or croft. Where there sheaf at
are a number of crofts beside each other, there is always n^g islands
great rivalry as to who shall first finish reaping, and so of Lewis
have the Old Wife before his neighbours. Some people
even go out on a clear night to reap their fields after their
neighbours have retired to rest, in order that they may have
the Old Wife first. More neighbourly habits, however,
usually prevail, and as each finishes his own fields he goes
to the help of another, till the whole crop is cut. The reap-
insf is still done with the sickle. When the corn has been
cut on all the crofts, the last sheaf is dressed up to look as
like an old woman as possible. She wears a white cap, a
dress, an apron, and a little shawl over the shoulders fastened
with a sprig of heather. The apron is tucked up to form a
pocket, which is stuffed with bread and cheese. A sickle,
stuck in the string of the apron at the back, completes her
equipment. This costume and outfit mean that the Old
Wife is ready to bear a hand in the work of harvesting.
At the feast which follows, the Old Wife is placed at the
head of the table, and as the whisky goes round each of the
company drinks to her, saying, " Here's to the one that has
helped us with the harvest." When the table has been
cleared away and dancing begins, one of the lads leads out
the Old Wife and dances with her ; and if the night is fine
the party will sometimes go out and march in a body to a
considerable distance, singing harvest-songs, while one of
them carries the Old Wife on his back. When the Harvest-
Home is over, the Old Wife is shorn of her gear and used
for ordinary purposes.^ In the island of Islay the last corn
cut also goes by the name of the Old Wife {Cailleach\ and
when she has done her duty at harvest she is hung up on the
wall and stays there till the time comes to plough the fields
for the next year's crop. Then she is taken down, and on the
first day when the men go to plough she is divided among
them by the mistress of the house. They take her in their
pockets and give her to the horses to eat when they reach
the field. This is supposed to secure good luck for the next
harvest, and is understood to be the proper end of the Old
1 R. C. Maclagan, "Notes on folk-lore objects collected in Argyleshire,"
Folk-lore, vi. (1895) pp. I49 ■s'i'-
142
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The Old
Wife at
harvest in
Argyle-
shire.
The reaper
of the last
sheaf called
the Winter.
The Hag
{wracli)
at harvest
in North
Pembroke-
shire.
Wife/ In Kintyre also the name of the Old Wife is given
to the last corn cut.^ On the shores of the beautiful Loch
Awe, a long sheet of water, winding among soft green hills,
above which the giant Ben Cruachan towers bold and rugged
on the north, the harvest custom is somewhat different.
The name of the Old Wife {Cailleach) is here bestowed, not
on the last corn cut, but on the reaper who is the last to
finish. He bears it as a term of reproach, and is not
privileged to reap the last ears left standing. On the con-
trary, these are cut by the reaper who was the first to finish
his spagh or strip (literally *' claw "), and out of them is
fashioned the Maiden, which is afterwards hung up, accord-
ing to one statement, " for the purpose of preventing the
death of horses in spring."^ In the north-east of Scotland
" the one who took the last of the grain from the field to
the stackyard was called the ' winter.' Each one did what
could be done to avoid being the last on the field, and when
there were several on the field there was a race to get off.
The unfortunate ' winter ' was the subject of a good deal of
teasing, and was dressed up in all the old clothes that could
be gathered about the farm, and placed on the ' bink ' to eat
his supper." * So in Caithness the person who cuts the last
sheaf is called Winter and retains the name till the next
harvest.^
Usages of the same sort are reported from Wales. Thus
in North Pembrokeshire a tuft of the last corn cut, from six
to twelve inches long, is plaited and goes by the name of the
Hag iwracli) ; and quaint old customs used to be practised
with it within the memory of many persons still alive.
Great was the excitement among the reapers when the last
patch of standing corn was reached. All in turn threw
their sickles at it, and the one who succeeded in cutting it
received a jug of home-brewed ale. The Hag {wrack) was
then hurriedly made and taken to a neighbouring farm,
where the reapers were still busy at their work. This was
generally done by the ploughman ; but he had to be very
' R. C. Maclagan, c/. cii. p. 151.
2 R. C. Maclagan, op. cit. p. 149.
* Ibid. pp. 151 sg.
* Rev. Walter Gregor, Notes on the
Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland
(London, 18S1), p. 182.
^ Rev. J. Macdonald, Religimr and
/l/i'/-^ (London, 1893), p. 141.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 143
careful not to be observed by his neighbours, for if they saw
him coming and had the least suspicion of his errand they
would soon make him retrace his steps. Creeping stealthily
up behind a fence he waited till the foreman of his neigh-
bour's reapers was just opposite him and within easy reach.
Then he suddenly threw the Hag over the fence and, if
possible, upon the foreman's sickle, crying out
" Boreu y codais i,
Hwyr y dilynais i,
Ar ei givar hi"
On that he took to his heels and made off as fast as he
could run, and he was a lucky man if he escaped without
being caught or cut by the flying sickles which the infuriated
reapers hurled after him. In other cases the Hag was
brought home to the farmhouse by one of the reapers. He
did his best to bring it home dry and without being observed ;
but he was apt to be roughly handled by the people of
the house, if they suspected his errand. Sometimes they
stripped him of most of his clothes, sometimes they would
drench him with water which had been carefully stored
in buckets and pans for the purpose. If, however, he
succeeded in bringing the Hag in dry and unobserved, the
master of the house had to pay him a small fine ; or some-
times a jug of beer "from the cask next to the wall," which
seems to have commonly held the best beer, would be
demanded by the bearer. The Hag was then carefully
hung on a nail in the hall or elsewhere and kept there all
the year. The custom of bringing in the Hag {wradi) into
the house and hanging it up still exists in some farms of
North Pembrokeshire, but the ancient ceremonies which have
just been described are now discontinued.^
Similar customs at harvest were observed in South
1 D. Jenkyn Evans, in an article to be that the man has pursued the
entitled "The Harvest Customs of Hag or Corn-spirit to a later reftige,
Pembrokeshire," Pembroke County namely, his neighbour's field not yet
Guardian, 7th December 1895. In a completely reaped, and now he leaves
letter to me, dated 23 February 1901, her for the other reapers to catch.
Mr. E. S. Hnrtland was so good as to The proper form of the Welsh word for
correct the Welsh words in the text. Hag is Gwrack. That is the radical
He tells me that they mean literally, from gwr, man ; gwraig, woman.
"I rose early, I pursued late on her Wrack \s Xhe 'middle mutation.' "
neck," and he adds : " The idea seems
144 CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
The Hag Pembrokeshire within living memory. In that part of
harvest in^ the country there used to be a competition between
South neighbouring farms to see which would finish reaping
shire. fi^st. The foreman of the reapers planned so as to
finish the reaping in a corner of the field out of sight
of the people on the next farm. There, with the last
handful of corn cut, he would make two Old Women or
Hags {^racks'). One of them he would send by a lad
or other messenger to be laid secretly in the field where
the neighbours were still at work cutting their corn. The
messenger would disguise himself to look like a stranger,
and jumping the fence and creeping through the corn he
would lay the Hag {tvracJi) in a place where the reapers in
reaping would be sure to find it. Having done so he fled
for dear life, for were the reapers to catch him they would
shut him up in a dark room and not let him out till he had
cleaned all the muddy boots, shoes, and clogs in the house.
The second Hag {wrack) was sent or taken by the foreman
of the reapers to his master's farmhouse. Generally he tried
to pop into the house unseen and lay the Hag on the
kitchen table ; but if the people of the farm caught him
before he laid it down, they used to drench him with water.
If a foreman succeeded in getting both the Hags {wracks)
laid safe in their proper quarters, one at home, the other on a
neighbour's farm, without interruption, it was deemed a great
TheCariey honour.^ In County Antrim, down to some years ago,
at harvest ^hg^ the sickle was finally expelled by the reaping machine,
the few stalks of corn left standing last on the field were
plaited together ; then the reapers, blindfolded, threw their
sickles at the plaited corn, and whoever happened to cut it
through took it home with him and put it over his door.
This bunch of corn was called the Carley ^ — probably the
same word as Carlin.
The Old Similar customs are observed by Slavonic peoples. Thus
(the'B^aba) '^ Poland the last sheaf is commonly called the Baba, that
at harvest is, the Old Woman. "In the last sheaf," it is said, " sits the
Slavonic Baba." The sheaf itself is also called the Baba, and is
peoples.
1 M. S. Clark, "An old South ^ Communicated by my friend Pro-
Pembrokeshire Harvest Custom," Folk- fessor W. Ridgeway.
lore, XV. (1904) pp. 194-196.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 145
sometimes composed of twelve smaller sheaves lashed to-
gether.^ In some parts of Bohemia the Baba, made out of
the last sheaf, has the figure of a woman with a great straw
hat. It is carried home on the last harvest-waggon and
delivered, along with a garland, to the farmer by two girls.
In binding the sheaves the women strive not to be last, for
she who binds the last sheaf will have a child next year.^
The last sheaf is tied up with others into a large bundle, and
a green branch is stuck on the top of it.^ Sometimes the
harvesters call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf,
" She has the Baba," or '' She is the Baba." She has then
to make a puppet, sometimes in female, sometimes in male
form, out of the corn ; the puppet is occasionally dressed
with clothes, often with flowers and ribbons only. The
cutter of the last stalks, as well as the binder of the last
sheaf, v/as also called Baba ; and a doll, called the Harvest-
woman, w^as made out of the last sheaf and adorned w^ith
ribbons. The oldest reaper had to dance, first with this doll,
and then with the farmer's wife.'* In the district of Cracow,
when a man binds the last sheaf, they say, " The Grandfather
is sitting in it " ; when a w^oman binds it, they say, " The Baba
is sitting in it," and the woman herself is wrapt up in the
sheaf, so that only her head projects out of it. Thus en-
cased in the sheaf, she is carried on the last harvest-waggon
to the house, where she is drenched with w^ater by the whole
family. She remains in the sheaf till the dance is over, and
for a year she retains the name of Baba.^
In Lithuania the name for the last sheaf is Boba (Old The Old
Woman), answering to the Polish name Baba. The Boba is (the'Eaba)
said to sit in the corn which is left standing last.® The at harvest
person who binds the last sheaf or digs the last potato is the ^^i^
subject of much banter, and receives and long retains the
name of the Old Rye-woman or the Old Potato-woman.^
The last sheaf — the Boba — is made into the form of a
woman, carried solemnly through the village on the last
harvest-waggon, and drenched with water at the farmer's
house ; then every one dances with it.^
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische * Ibid. p. 329.
Forscktnigen, p. 328. ^ Ibid. p. 330. ^ Ibid.
2 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 23S. f W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 331.
3 Ibid. pp. 328 j^?. ^ Ibid.
PT. v. VOL. I L
146
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
queen.
The Corn- In Russia also the last sheaf is often shaped and dressed
Uie^" ^^^ ^^ ^ woman, and carried with dance and song to the farm-
Harvest- house. Out of the last sheaf the Bulgarians make a doll
which they call the Corn-queen or Corn-mother ; it is dressed
in a woman's shirt, carried round the village, and then thrown
into the river in order to secure plenty of rain and dew for
the next year's crop. Or it is burned and the ashes strewn
on the fields, doubtless to fertilise them.^ The name Queen,
as applied to the last sheaf, has its analogies in central
and northern Europe. Thus, in the Salzburg district of
Austria, at the end of the harvest a great procession takes
place, in which a Queen of the Corn-ears {Ahreiikontgin) is
drawn along in a little carriage by young fellows.^ The
custom of the Harvest Queen appears to have been common
in England. Brand quotes from Hutchinson's History of
Northumberland the following : " I have seen, in some places,
an image apparelled in great finery, crowned with flowers, a
sheaf of corn placed under her arm, and a scycle in her hand,
carried out of the village in the morning of the conclusive
reaping day, with music and much clamour of the reapers,
into the field, where it stands fixed on a pole all day, and
when the reaping is done, is brought home in like manner.
This they call the Harvest Queen, and it represents the
Roman Ceres." ^ Again, the traveller Dr. E. D. Clarke tells
us that " even in the town of Cambridge, and centre of our
University, such curious remains of antient customs may be
noticed, in different seasons of the year, which pass without
observation. The custom of blowing horns upon the
first of May (Old Style) is derived from a festival in honour
of Diana. At the Hazukie, as it is called, or Harvest
Home, I have seen a clown dressed in woman's clothes,
having his face painted, his head decorated with ears of corn,
and bearing about him other symbols of Ceres, carried in a
waggon, with great pomp and loud shouts, through the
streets, the horses being covered with white sheets : and when
I inquired the meaning of the ceremony, was answered by
the people that they were drawing the Morgay (MHTHP FH)
1 Ibid. p. 332. 3 Hutchinson, Ilistoiy of Noi-thum-
Vernaleken, Mythen und bey-land, ii. ad Jiiiem, 17, quoted by
J. Brand, Popitlar Antiquities of Great
2 Th.
Brduche
des Volkes in
und
Oesterreich
(Vienna, 1859), p. 310.
Briiaifi, ii. 20, Bohn's edition.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 147
or Harvest Queen." ^ Milton must have been familiar with
the custom of the Harvest Queen, for in Paradise Lost'''
he says : —
'■'■Adam the while
Waiting desirous her return, had wove
Of choicest Jiotd rs a garland to adorn
Her tresses, and her rural labours crown.
As reapers oft are wont their harvest-gtieen."
Often customs of this sort are practised, not on the The corn-
harvest-field but on the threshing-floor. The spirit of the ^hTow
corn, fleeing before the reapers as they cut down the Woman or
ripe grain, quits the reaped corn and takes refuge in the at thre^h-
barn, where it appears in the last sheaf threshed, either to i°g-
perish under the blows of the flail or to flee thence to the
still unthreshed corn of a neighbouring farm.^ Thus the last
corn to be threshed is called the Mother-Corn or the Old
Woman. Sometimes the person who gives the last stroke
with the flail is called the Old Woman, and is wrapt in the
straw of the last sheaf, or has a bundle of straw fastened on
his back. Whether wrapt in the straw or carrying it on his
back, he is carted through the village amid general laughter.
In some districts of Bavaria, Thuringen, and elsewhere, the
man who threshes the last sheaf is said to have the Old
Woman or the Old Corn-woman ; he is tied up in straw,
carried or carted about the village, and set down at last
^ E. D. Clarke, Travels in Various hbkelmei, hbrkelmei, or karkelmei,
Cotmtries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, which in Westphalia is applied to a
Part ii. , Section First, Second Edition green bush or tree set up in the field at
(London, 1813), p. 229. Perhaps the end of harvest and brought home in
Morgay (which Clarke absurdly ex- the last waggon-load ; the man who
plains as fi'rjTrip yj}) is a mistake for carries it into the farmhouse is some-
Hawkie or Hockey. The waggon in times drenched with water. See A.
which the last corn was brought from Kuhn, Sagen, Gebrdtuhe uiid Mdrchen
the harvest field was called the hockey aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 178-
cart or hock cart. In a poem called 180, §§494-497. The word is thought
"The Hock-cart or Harvest Home" to be derived from the Low German /<o/5'ir
Herrick has described the joyous return (plural hokken), "a heap of sheaves."
of the laden cart drawn by horses See Joseph Wright, English Dialect
swathed in white sheets and attended Dictionaty, iii. (London, 1902) p. 190,
by a merry crowd, some of whom s.v. " Hockey," from which it appears
kissed or stroked the sheaves, while that in England the word has been in
others pranked them with oak leaves. use in Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, and
See further J. Brand, Popidar An- Suffolk.
tiquities, ii. 22 sq., Bohn's edition. ^ Book ix. lines 838-842.
The name Hockey or Haivkie is no ^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
doubt the same with the German Forschungen, pp. 333 sq.
148
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The man
who gives
the last
stroke at
threshing
is called the
Corn-fool,
the Oats-
fool, etc.
The man
who gives
the last
stroke at
threshing
is said to
get the Old
Woman
or the
Old Man.
on the dunghill, or taken to the threshing-floor of a neighbour-
ing farmer who has not finished his threshing.^ In Poland
the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is called
Baba (Old Woman) ; he is wrapt in corn and wheeled
through the village." Sometimes in Lithuania the last sheaf
is not threshed, but is fashioned into female shape and
carried to the barn of a neighbour who has not finished
his threshing.^
At Chorinchen, near Neustadt, the man who gives the
last stroke at threshing is said to " get the Old Man." ^
In various parts of Austrian Silesia he is called the corn-
fool, the oats-fool, and so forth according to the crop, and
retains the name till the next kind of grain has been reaped.
Sometimes he is called the Kltippel or mallet. He is much
ridiculed and in the Bennisch district he is dressed out
in the threshing-implements and obliged to carry them
about the farmyard to the amusement of his fellows. In
Dobischwald the man who gives the last stroke at threshing
has to carry a log or puppet of wood wrapt in straw to a
neighbour who has not yet finished his threshing. There
he throws his burden into the barn, crying, " There you
have the Mallet {Kloppel)" and makes off as fast as he can.
If they catch him, they tie the puppet on his back, and
he is known as the Mallet {Kloppel) for the whole of the
year ; he may be the Corn-mallet or the Wheat-mallet or
so forth according to the particular crop.^
About Berneck, in Upper Franken, the man who gives
the last stroke at threshing runs away. If the others catch
him, he gets " the Old Woman," that is, the largest dumpling,
which elsewhere is baked in human shape. The custom of
setting a dumpling baked in the form of an old woman
before the man who has given the last stroke at threshing is
also observed in various parts of Middle Franken. Some-
times the excised genitals of a calf are served up to him
at table.® At Langenbielau in Silesia the last sheaf, which
1 Ibid. p. 334.
^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische For-
schtingcn, p. 334. ^ .jf,i(ji_ p_ ^36.
* A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz,
Norddeutsche Sagen, Mdrchcii iind
Gebrdtiche (Leipsic, 1848), p. 397.
" A. Peter, Volksthiimliches aus Oster-
reichisch - Schlesien (Troppau, 1865-
1867), ii. 270.
^ Bavaria landes- und Volkshinde
des Konigreichs Bayern, iii. (Munich,
i^^^^S) pp. 344, 969.
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
149
is called " the Old Man," is threshed separately and the
corn ground into meal and baked into a loaf. This loaf is
believed to possess healing virtue and to bring a blessing ;
hence none but members of the family may partake of it.
At Wittichenau, in the district of Hoyerswerda (Silesia),
when the threshing is ended, some of the straw of " the
Old Man " is carried to a neighbour who has not yet finished
his threshing, and the bearer is rewarded with a gratuity.^
Among the Germans of the Falkenauer district in West
Bohemia the man who gives the last stroke at threshing
gets " the Old Man," a hideous scarecrow, tied on his back.
If threshing is still proceeding at another farm, he may go
thither and rid himself of his burden, but must take care
not to be caught. In this way a farmer who is behind-
hand with his threshing may receive several such scarecrows,
and so become the target for many gibes. Among the
Germans of the Planer district in West Bohemia, the man
who gives the last stroke at threshing is himself called " the
Old Man." Similarly at flax-dressing in Silberberg (West
Bohemia), the woman who is the last to finish her task is
said to get the Old Man, and a cake baked in human form
is served up to her at supper."^ The Wends of Saxony say
of the man who gives the last stroke at threshing that " he
has struck the Old Man " {won je stareho bit), and he is
obliged to carry a straw puppet to a neighbour, who
has not yet finished his threshing, where he throws
the puppet unobserved over the fence.^ In some parts The Corn-
r f- 1 1 . iU woman at
of Sweden, when a stranger woman appears on the threshino^.
threshing-floor, a flail is put round her body, stalks of
corn are wound round her neck, a crown of ears is placed
on her head, and the threshers call out, " Behold the Corn-
woman." Here the stranger woman, thus suddenly appearing,
is taken to be the corn-spirit who has just been expelled by
the flails from the corn-stalks.* In other cases the farmer's
wife represents the corn-spirit. Thus in the Commune
of Salign^, Canton de Poiret (Vendue), the farmer's wife,
1 P. Drechsler, Sitte, Branch unci (Prague, 1905), pp. 193, 194, 197.
Volksglatibe in Schlesien (Le\Y>s\c, 1903- ^ R. Wuttke, SdchsiscJie Volkskitndi'^
1906), ii. 67. (Dresden, 1901), p. 360.
2 A. John, Sitte, Branch unci * W. Mannhardt, Mytliologische
Volksglauhe im dentscheii IVestbohiiie/i Forschiingeti, p. 336.
ISO CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
along with the last sheaf, is tied up in a sheet, placed on a
litter, and carried to the threshing machine, under which
she is shoved. Then the woman is drawn out and the
sheaf is threshed by itself, but the woman is tossed in
the sheet, as if she were being winnowed.^ It would be
impossible to express more clearly the identification of the
woman with the corn than by this graphic imitation of
threshing and winnowing her. Mitigated forms of the
custom are observed in various places. Thus among the
Germans of Schuttarschen in West Bohemia it was customary
at the close of the threshing to " throttle " the farmer's wife
by squeezing her neck between the arms of a flail till she
consented to bake a special kind of cake called a driscJiala
(from dreschen, " to thresh ")} A similar custom of " thrott-
ling " the farmer's wife at the threshing is practised in some
parts of Bavaria, only there the pressure is applied by means
of a straw rope instead of a flail.^
The corn- In these customs the spirit of the ripe corn is regarded
child at ^ as old, or at least as of mature age. Hence the names of
harvest. Mother, Grandmother, Old Woman, and so forth. But in
other cases the corn-spirit is conceived as young. Thus at
Saldern, near Wolfenbuttel, when the rye has been reaped,
three sheaves are tied together with a rope so as to make a
puppet with the corn ears for a head. This puppet is called
the Maiden or the Corn-maiden [Kornjunfer).^ Sometimes
the corn-spirit is conceived as a child who is separated
from its mother by the stroke of the sickle. This last
view appears in the Polish custom of calling out to
the man who cuts the last handful of corn, "You
have cut the navel-string."^ In some districts of West
Prussia the figure made out of the last sheaf is called
the Bastard, and a boy is wrapt up in it. The woman who
binds the last sheaf and represents the Corn-mother is told
that she is about to be brought to bed ; she cries like a
woman in travail, and an old woman in the character of
1 Ibid. p. 336 ; W. Mannhardt, (Strasburg, 1900), p. 437.
Baumkultus, p. 612. * A. Kuhn, Sagen, Gehrduche und
'^ A. John, Si/te, Brauch und AfdrcAen atis lVes(fa/en (Leipsic, iS^g),
Volksglaiibe im dejitscken Westbolwien ii. 184 .c^., § 5^5-
(Prague, 1905), p. 194. " W. Mannhardt, Die Kornddmonen
3 E. H. Meyer, Badisches Volksleben (Berlin, 1S68), p. 28.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 151
grandmother acts as midwife. At last a cry is raised that
the child is born ; whereupon the boy who is tied up in the
sheaf whimpers and squalls like an infant. The grand-
mother wraps a sack, in imitation of swaddling bands, round
the pretended baby, who is carried joyfully to the barn, lest
he should catch cold in the open air.^ In other parts of North
Germany the last sheaf, or the puppet made out of it, is
called the Child, the Harvest-Child, and so on, and they
call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, "you are
getting the child." ^
In the north of England, particularly in the counties of The last
Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, the last corn cut caiied^the
on the field at harvest is or used to be variously known »'^^^. the
as the inell or the kirn, of which kern and churn are merely the churn
local or dialectical variations. The corn so cut is either '" various
r 1-1 parts of
plaited or made up into a doll-like figure, which goes by England,
the name of the mell-doll or the kirn-doll, or the kirn-baby,
and is brought home with rejoicings at the end of the
harvest.^ In the North Riding of Yorkshire the last sheaf
gathered in is called the Mell-sheaf, and the expression
" We've gotten wer mell " is as much as to say " The
Harvest is finished." Formerly a Mell-doll was made out of
a sheaf of corn decked with flowers and wrapped in such of
the reapers' garments as could be spared. It was carried with
music and dancing to the scene of the harvest-supper, which
was called the mell-supper.* In the north of Yorkshire
1 W. Mannhardt, I.e. as it was formerly in England ; the
2 W. Mannhardt, I.e. only woman wiio sold dolls in Hawick
2 Joseph Wright, English Dialect early in the [nineieenth] century, and
Dictionary, vol. i. (London, 1898) whose toy-shop all bairns knew, was
p. 605 s.v. "Churn"; id., vol. iii. known as 'Betty o' the Babs,' Betty
(London, 1902) p. 453 s.v. "Kirn"; of the dolls."
id. vol. iv. (London, 1903) pp. 82 sq. * W. Henderson, Folk-lore of the
Sir James Murray, editor of the New Northern Coutilies of Etigland {Lot\Aov\,
English Dictionary, kindly informs me 1879), pp. 88 sq. ; M. C. F. Morris,
that the popular etymology which Yorkshire Folk-talk, pp. 2 12 -2 14.
identifies kern or kirn in this sense with Compare F. Grose, Provincial Glossary
corn is entirely mistaken; and that (London, \?>\\), s.v. " Mell-supper " ;
"baby" or "babbie" in the same J. Brand, Poptilar Antiquities, ii.
phrase means only "doll," not z"] sqq., Bohn's edition; The Denham
"infant." He writes, "Kirn-babbie Tracts, edited by Dr. James Hardy
does not mean 'corn-baby,' but (London, 1892-1895), ii. 2 sq. The
merely kirn-doll, harvest - home doll. sheaf out of which the Mell-doll was
Bab, babbie was even in my youth the made was no doubt the Mell-sheaf,
regular name for ' doll ' in the district, though this is not expressly said. Dr.
152 CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
the mell-sheaf " was frequently made of such dimensions
as to be a heavy load for a man, and, within a few years
comparatively, was proposed as the prize to be won in a
race of old women. In other cases it was carefully preserved
and set up in some conspicuous place in the farmhouse." ^
Where the last sheaf of corn cut was called the kirn or
kern instead of the mell, the customs concerned with it seem
to have been essentially similar. Thus we are told that
in the north it was common for the reapers, on the last day
of the reaping, " to have a contention for superiority in
quickness of dispatch, groups of three or four taking each a
ridge, and striving which should soonest get to its termina-
tion. In Scotland, this was called a kemping, which simply
means a striving. In the north of England, it was a mell.
... As the reapers went on during the last day, they took
care to leave a good handful of the grain uncut, but laid
down flat, and covered over ; and, when the field was done,
the 'bonniest lass' was allowed to cut this final handful,
which was presently dressed up with various sewings, tyings,
and trimmings, like a doll, and hailed as a Corn Baby. It
was brought home in triumph, with music of fiddles and
bagpipes, was set up conspicuously that night at supper,
and was usually preserved in the farmer's parlour for the
remainder of the year. The bonny lass who cut this hand-
ful of grain was deemed the Har'st Queen!' ^ To cut the
last portion of standing corn in the harvest field was known
as " to get the kirn " or " to win the kirn " ; and as soon as
this was done the reapers let the neighbours know that the
harvest was finished by giving three cheers, which was
Joseph Wright, editor of The English expression ' ' Corn Baby " used by the
Dialect Dictionary, kindly informs me writer is probably his interpretation of
that the word ?nell is well known in the correct expression ki>-n or kertt
these senses in all the northern counties baby. See above, p. 1 5 1 , note 3. It is
of England down to Cheshire. He not clear whether the account refers to
tells me that the proposals to connect England or Scotland. Compare F.
;«£'// with " meal " or with "maiden" Grose, Provincial Glossary (London
(through a form like the German xZw), s.v. "Kern-baby," "an image
Alddel) are inadmissible. dressed up with corn, carried before the
1 Joseph Wright, The English reapers to their mell-supper, or harvest-
Dialect Dictionary, vol. iv. (London, Y^oxa^^'' •,].'&x2cn^, Popular Antiquities,
1903)5.7/. " Mell," p. 83. ii. 20; W. Henderson, Folk-lore of
2 R. Chambers, The Book of Days the Northern Counties of England.
(Edinburgh, 1886), ii. 377 sij. The p. 87.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 153
called "to cry or shout the kirn." ^ Where the last handful The^terw
of standinj^ corn was called the churn, the stalks were f^' "^^
^ ' tnrowing
roughly plaited together, and the reapers threw their sickles sickles at it.
at it till some one cut it through, which was called " cutting
the churn." The severed churn (that is, the plaited corn) was
then placed over the kitchen door or over the hob in the
chimney for good luck, and as a charm against witchcraft.^
In Kent the Ivy Girl is, or used to be, " a figure composed
of some of the best corn the field produces, and made as well
as they can into a human shape ; this is afterwards curiously
dressed by the women, and adorned with paper trimmings,
cut to resemble a cap, ruffles, handkerchief, etc., of the finest
lace. It is brought home with the last load of corn from the
field upon the waggon, and they suppose entitles them to a
supper at the expense of the employer." ^
In some parts of Scotland, as well as in the north of Eng- The last
land, the last handful of corn cut on the harvest-field was called '^Ti"^^"!
' _ _ called the
the kirn, and the person who carried it off was said "to win the kim in
kirn." It was then dressed up like a child's doll and went by 0° 5^0^"'*
the name of the kirn-baby, the kirn-doll, or the Maiden.* In land.
Berwickshire down to about the middle of the nineteenth
century there was an eager competition among the reapers
to cut the last bunch of standing corn. They gathered
round it at a little distance and threw their sickles in turn
at it, and the man who succeeded in cutting it through gave
it to the girl he preferred. She made the corn so cut into
a kirn-dolly and dressed it, and the doll was then taken to
the farmhouse and hung up there till the next harvest, when
its place was taken by the new kirn-dolly.^ At Spottiswoode The kim
(Westruther Parish) in Berwickshire the reaping of the last reapers
corn at harvest was called " cutting the Queen " almost as blindfold.
as often as " cutting the kirn." The mode of cutting it was
not by throwing sickles. One of the reapers consented to
be blindfolded, and having been given a sickle in his hand
^ Joseph Wright, The English 21 sq.
Dialect Dictionary, iii. (London, 1902) * J. Jamieson, Etymological Diction-
s.v. " Kirn," p. 453. ary of the Scottish Laugtcage, New
2 Joseph Wright, The English ^^'^'°'' ^^^^^^^ 1879-1882), iii. 42
Dialect Dictionary, i. (London, 1898)
sij., s.v. " Kirn.
g •' • V ) y / 6 j^j|.g_ ^ g Gomme, " A Berwick-
^' shire Kirn-dolly," Folk-lore, xii. (1901)
3 J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. p. 215.
154
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The chum
in Ireland
cut by
throwing
the sickles
at it.
and turned twice or thrice about by his fellows, he was
bidden to go and cut the kirn. His groping about and
making wild strokes in the air with his sickle excited much
hilarity. When he had tired himself out in vain and given
up the task as hopeless, another reaper was blindfolded and
pursued the quest, and so on, one after the other, till at last
the kirn was cut. The successful reaper was tossed up in
the air with three cheers by his brother harvesters. To
decorate the room in which the kirn-supper was held at
Spottiswoode as well as the granary, where the dancing
took place, two women made kirn-dollies or Queens every
year ; and many of these rustic effigies of the corn-spirit
might be seen hanging up together.^ At Lanfine in Ayr-
shire, down to near the end of the nineteenth century, the
last bunch of standing corn at harvest was, occasionally at
least, plaited together, and the reapers tried to cut it by
throwing their sickles at it ; when they failed in the attempt,
a woman has been known to run in and sever the stalks at
a blow. In Dumfriesshire also, within living memory, it
used to be customary to cut the last standing corn by throw-
ing the sickles at it.^
In the north of Ireland the harvest customs were
similar, but there, as in some parts of England, the
last patch of standing corn bore the name of the churUy
a dialectical variation of kirn. "The custom of 'Winning
the Churn ' was prevalent all through the counties of Down
and Antrim fifty years ago. It was carried out at the
end of the harvest, or reaping the grain, on each farm or
holding, were it small or large. Oats are the main crop of
the district, but the custom was the same for other kinds of
grain. When the reapers had nearly finished the last field
a handful of the best-grown stalks was selected, carefully
plaited as it stood, and fastened at the top just under the
ears to keep the plait in place. Then when all the corn was
cut from about this, which was known as The C/nivfi, and
the sheaves about it had been removed to some distance,
the reapers stood in a group about ten yards off it, and each
^ Mrs. A. B. Gomme, "Harvest ^ j. q. Frazer, "Notes on Harvest
Customs," Folk-lore, xiii. (1902) p. Customs," Folk-lore, vii. (1889) p.
178. 48.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 155
whirled his sickle at the CJmrn till one lucky one succeeded
in cutting it down, when he was cheered on his achievement.
This person had then the right of presenting it to the master
or mistress of the farm, who gave the reaper a shilling." A
supper and a dance of the reapers in the farmhouse often
concluded the day. The Churti^ trimmed and adorned with
ribbons, was hung up on a wall in the farmhouse and care-
fully preserved. It was no uncommon sight to see six or
even twelve or more such Churns decorating the walls of
a farmhouse in County Down or Antrim.^
In some parts of the Highlands of Scotland the last The last
handful of corn that is cut by the reapers on any particular called the
farm is called the Maiden, or in Gaelic Maidhdeanbuain, Maiden in
literally *' the shorn Maiden." Superstitions attach to the i^nds of
winning of the Maiden. If it is got by a young person, Scotland,
they think it an omen that he or she will be married before
another harvest. For that or other reasons there is a strife
between the reapers as to who shall get the Maiden, and
they resort to various stratagems for the purpose of securing
it. One of them, for example, will often leave a handful of
corn uncut and cover it up with earth to hide it from the
other reapers, till all the rest of the corn on the field is cut
down. Several may try to play the same trick, and the one
who is coolest and holds out longest obtains the coveted
distinction. When it has been cut, the Maiden is dressed
with ribbons into a sort of doll and affixed to a wall of
the farmhouse. In the north of Scotland the Maiden is
carefully preserved till Yule morning, when it is divided
among the cattle "to make them thrive all the year round." ^
In the island of Mull and some parts of the mainland of
Argyleshire the last handful of corn cut is called the Maiden
{Maighdean-Bkiiand}. Near Ardrishaig, in Argyleshire, the
1 (Rev.) H. W. Lett, "Winning the corn so cut was taken home and kept
Churn (Ulster)," Folk-lore, xvi. (1905) for some time.
p. 185. My friend Miss Welsh, ^ ]. ]a.m\esoT\, Dictionary of the Scol-
formerly Principal of Giiton College, tish Language, New Edition (Paisley,
Cambridge, told me (30th May 1901) 1879-1882), iii. 206, s.v. "Maiden."
that she remembers the custom of the An old Scottish name for the Maiden
churn being observed in the north of {autumnalis ttymphtila) was Rapegyrne.
Ireland ; the reapers cut the last hand- See Fordun, Scotichrcn. ii. 418, quoted
ful of standing corn (called the churn) by ]. Jamieson, op. cit. iii. 624, s.v.
by throwing their sickles at it, and the " Rapeg)'rne."
156
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The cut-
ting of the
Maiden at
harvest in
Argyle-
shire.
The cut-
ting of the
Maiden at
harvest in
Perthshire.
Maiden is made up in a fanciful three-cornered shape,
decorated with ribbons, and hung from a nail on the wall.^
The following account of the Maiden was obtained in
the summer of 1897 from the manager of a farm near
Kilmartin in Argyleshire : " The Mhaighdean-Bhuana, or
Reaping Maiden, was the last sheaf of oats to be cut on
a croft or farm. Before the reaping-machine and binder
took the place of the sickle and the scythe, the young
reapers of both sexes, when they neared the end of the
last rig or field, used to manoeuvre to gain possession of
the MhaigJidean-Bhuana. The individual who was fortunate
enough to obtain it was ex officio entitled to be the King
or the Queen of the Harvest-Home festival. The sheaf so
designated was carefully preserved and kept intact until the
day they began leading home the corn. A tuft of it was
then given to each of the horses, as they started from the
corn-field with their first load. The rest of it was neatly made
up, and hung in some conspicuous corner of the farmhouse,
where it remained till it was replaced by a younger sister
next season. On the first day of ploughing a tuft of it
was given (as on the first day of leading home the corn) as
a Sainnseal or handsel for luck to the horses. The MhaigJi-
dean-Bhuana so preserved and used was -a symbol that the
harvest had been duly secured, and that the spring work
had been properly inaugurated. It was also believed to
be a protection against fairies and witchcraft." ^
In the parish of Longforgan, situated at the south-eastern
corner of Perthshire, it used to be customary to give what
was called the Maiden Feast at the end of the harvest. The
last handful of corn reaped on the field was called the Maiden,
and things were generally so arranged that it fell into the
hands of a pretty girl. It was then decked out with ribbons
and brought home in triumph to the music of bagpipes and
fiddles. In the evening the reapers danced and made merry.
Afterwards the Maiden was dressed out, generally in the
I
1 R. C. Maclagan, in Folk-lore, vi.
(1895) pp. 149, 151.
2 Rev. M. MacPhail (Free Church
Manse, Kihnartin, Lochgilphead),
" P'olk-lore from the Hebrides," Folk-
lore, \\.{i 900) p. 44 1 . That the Maiden ,
hung up in the house, is thought to keep
out witches till the next harvest is men-
tioned also by the Rev. J. G. Campbell,
Superstitions of the Highlands and
Islands of Seotland {Gla.sgow, 1900), p.
20. So with the churn (above, p. 153)
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 157
form of a cross, and hung up, with the date attached to it,
in a conspicuous part of the house.^ In the neighbourhood
of Balquhidder, Perthshire, the last handful of corn is cut
by the youngest girl on the field, and is made into the rude
form of a female doll, clad in a paper dress, and decked
with ribbons. It is called the Maiden, and is kept in the
farmhouse, generally above the chimney, for a good while,
sometimes till the Maiden of the next year is brought in.
The writer of this book witnessed the ceremony of cutting
the Maiden at Balquhidder in September 1888.^ A lady
friend ^ informed me that as a young girl she cut the Maiden
several times at the request of the reapers in the neighbour-
hood of Perth. The name of the Maiden was given to the
last handful of standing corn ; a reaper held the top of the
bunch while she cut it. Afterwards the bunch was plaited,
decked with ribbons, and hung up in a conspicuous place on
the wall of the kitchen till the next Maiden was brought in.
The harvest-supper in this neighbourhood was also called
the Maiden ; the reapers danced at it.
In the Highland district of Lochaber dancing and merry- The
making on the last night of harvest used to be universal and ^rvtsUn'
are still generally observed. Here, we are told, the festivity Lochaber.
without the Maiden would be like a wedding without the bride.
The Maiden is carried home with tumultuous rejoicing, and
after being suitably decorated is hung up in the barn, where
the dancing usually takes place. When supper is over, one
of the company, generally the oldest man present, drinks
a glass of whisky, after turning to the suspended sheaf
and saying, " Here's to the Maiden." The company follow
his example, each in turn drinking to the Maiden. Then
the dancing begins.* On some farms on the Gareloch, in The cut-
Dumbartonshire, about the year 1830, the last handful of Maiden at
standing corn was called the Maiden. It was divided in two, harvest on
the Gare-
plaited, and then cut with the sickle by a girl, who, it was loch in
^ Sir John Sinclair, Statistical ^ The late Mrs. Macalister, wife of tonshire
Account of Scotland, xix. (Edinburgh, Professor Alexander Macalister, Cam-
1797); PP- 550 sq. Compare Miss bridge. Her recollections referred
E. J. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs especially to the neighbourhood of Glen
(London and Glasgow, 1S85), pp. Farg, some ten or twelve miles to the
130 sq. south of Perth.
2 Folk-lore Journal, vi. ( 1 888) pp. * Rev. James Macdonald, Religion
268 sq. and Myth (London, 1893), pp. 14 1 sq.
IS?
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The cut-
ting of the
clyack
sheaf at
harvest in
Aberdeen-
shire.
The clyack
sheaf cut
by the
youngest
girl and not
allowed to
touch the
ground.
thought, would be lucky and would soon be married. When
it was cut the reapers gathered together and threw their
sickles in the air. The Maiden was dressed with ribbons
and hung in the kitchen near the roof, where it was kept for
several years with the date attached. Sometimes five or six
Maidens might be seen hanging at once on hooks. The
harvest-supper was called the Kirn.^ In other farms on the
Gareloch the last handful of corn was called the Maidenhead
or the Head ; it was neatly plaited, sometimes decked with
ribbons, and hung in the kitchen for a year, when the grain
was given to the poultry."
In the north-east of Aberdeenshire the customs con-
nected with the last corn cut at harvest have been carefully
collected and recorded by the late Rev. Walter Gregor of
Pitsligo. His account runs as follows : " The last sheaf cut
is the object of much care : the manner of cutting it, binding
it, and carrying it to the house varies a little in the different
districts. The following customs have been reported to me
by people who have seen them or who have practised them,
and some of the customs have now disappeared. The
information comes from the parishes of Pitsligo, Aberdour,
and Tyrie, situated in the north-east corner of the county of
Aberdeen, but the customs are not limited to these parishes.
" Some particulars relating to the sheaf may be noted
as always the same ; thus {a) it is cut and gathered by the
youngest person present in the field, the person who is
supposed to be the purest ; {b) the sheaf is not allowed
to touch the ground ; {c) it is made up and carried in
triumph to the house ; {d) it occupies a conspicuous place
in the festivals which follow the end of the reaping ; {i) it
is kept till Christmas morning, and is then given to one or
more of the horses or to the cattle of the farm.
" Before the introduction of the scythe, the corn was cut
by the sickle or heuck, a kind of curved sickle. The last
sheaf was shorn or cut by the youngest girl present. As
the corn might not touch the ground, the master or ' gueed-
1 From information supplied by
Archie Leitch, late gardener to my
father at Rowmore, Garelochhead.
The Kirn was the name of the harvest
festivity in the south of Scotland also.
See Lockhart's Life of Scott, ii. 184
(first edition) ; Early Letters of Thomas
Carlyle, ed. Norton, ii. 325 sq.
■^ Communicated by the late Mr.
Macfarlane of Faslane, Gareloch.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 159
man * sat down, placed the band on his knees, and received
thereupon each handful as it was cut. The sheaf was bound,
dressed as a woman, and when it had been brought to the
house, it was placed in some part of the kitchen, where
everybody could see it during the meal which followed the
end of the reaping. This sheaf was called the clyack sheaf ^
" The manner of receiving and binding the last sheaf is
not always the same. Here is another : three persons hold
the band in their hands, one of them at each end, while the
third holds the knot in the middle. Each handful of corn
is placed so that the cut end is turned to the breast of those
who support the ears on the opposite side. When all is cut,
the youngest boy ties the knot. Two other bands are
fastened to the sheaf, one near the cut end, the other near
the ears. The sheaf is carried to the house by those who
have helped to cut or bind it (Aberdour).
"Since the introduction of the scythe, it is the youngest
boy who cuts the last sheaf; my informant (a woman) told
me that when he was not strong enough to wield the scythe,
his hand was guided by another. The youngest girl gathers
it. When it is bound with three bands, it is cut straight,
and it is not allowed to touch the ground. The youngest
girls carry it to the house. My informant (a woman) told
me that she had seen it decked and placed at the head of
the bed. Formerly, and still sometimes, there was always a
bed in the kitchen (Tyrie).
" The corn is not allowed to fall on the ground : the
young girls who gather it take it by the ear and convey
it handful by handful, till the whole sheaf is cut. A woman
who ' has lost a feather of her wing,' as an old woman put
it to me, may not touch it Sometimes also they merely
put the two hands round the sheaf (New Deer).
"Generally a feast and dance follow when all the wheat '^\\?^ciyack
is cut. This feast and dance bear the name of clyack or -merfand
^ A slightly different mode of ground. One of the maidens seated
making up the clyack sheaf is described herself on the ground, and over her
by the Rev. Walter Gregor elsewhere knees was the band of the sheaf laid.
{Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east Each of the maidens cut a handful,
of Scotland, London, 1881, pp. 181 or more if necessary, and laid it on
sq.): "The clyack sheaf was cut by the band. The sheaf was then bound,
the maidens on the harvest field. On still lying over the maiden's knees, and
no account was it allowed to touch the dressed up in woman's clothing."
ale.
i6o CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
* meal and ale.' However, some people do not give ' meal
and ale ' till all the cut corn has been got in : then the feast
is called * the Winter/ and they say that a farmer ' has the
Winter ' when all his sheaves have been carried home.
" At this feast two things are indispensable : a cheese
called the clyack-kebback and ' meal and ale.'
" The cheese clyack-kebback must be cut by the master of
the house. The first slice is larger than the rest ; it is known
by the name of ' the kanaves faangl — the young man's big
slice — ^and is generally the share of the herd boy (Tyrie).
" The dish called ' meal and ale ' is made as follows.
You take a suitable vessel, whether an earthenware pot or
a milk-bowl, if the crockery is scanty ; but if on the contrary
the family is well off, they use other special utensils. In
each dish ale is poured and treacle is added to sweeten
it. Then oatmeal is mixed with the sweetened ale till the
whole is of a sufficient consistency. The cook adds whisky
to the mixture in such proportion as she thinks fit. In each
plate is put a ring. To allow the meal time to be com-
pletely absorbed, the dish is prepared on the morning of the
feast. At the moment of the feast the dish or dishes con-
taining the strong and savoury mixture are set on the
middle of the table. But it is not served up till the end.
Six or seven persons generally have a plate to themselves.
Each of them plunges his spoon into the plate as fast as
possible in the hope of getting the ring ; for he who is
lucky enough to get it will be married within the year.
Meantime some of the stuff is swallowed, but often in the
struggle some of it is spilt on the table or the floor.
The ciyack " In some districts there used to be and still is dancing
sheaf in jj^ ^^ evening of the feast. 'The sheaf figured in the
the dance. ° °
dances. It was dressed as a girl and carried on the back of
the mistress of the house to the barn or granary which
served as a ballroom. The mistress danced a reel with
'the sheaf on her back.
The ciyack " The woman who gave me this account had been a
toTniare" witness of what she described when she was a girl. The
in foal or shcaf was afterwards carefully stored till the first day of
in calf. Christmas, when it was given to eat to a mare in foal, if
there was one on the farm, or, if there was not, to the oldest
I
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN i6i
cow in calf. Elsewhere the sheaf was divided between all
the cows and their calves or between all the horses and
the cattle of the farm. (Related by an eye-witness.)"^
In these Aberdeenshire customs the sanctity attributed Sanctity
to the last corn cut at harvest is clearly manifested, not ^"th^J^^^'^
merely by the ceremony with which it is treated on the dyack
field, in the house, and in the barn, but also by the great ^ ^^ '
care taken to prevent it from touching the ground or being
handled by any unchaste person. The reason why the
youngest person on the field, whether a girl or a boy, is
chosen to cut the last standing corn and sometimes to carry
it to the house is no doubt a calculation that the younger
the person the more likely is he or she to be sexually pure.
We have seen that for this reason some negroes entrust the
sowing of the seed to very young girls/ and later on we
shall meet with more evidence in Africa of the notion that
the corn may be handled only by the pure.^ And in the The sacra-
gruel of oat-meal and ale, which the harvesters sup with ^^^^ °^
spoons as an indispensable part of the harvest supper, have meal and
we not the Scotch equivalent of the gruel of barley-meal and eLusI^
water, flavoured with pennyroyal, which the initiates at Eleusis
drank as a solemn form of communion with the Barley
Goddess Demeter ? ^ May not that mystic sacrament have
1 W. Gregor, " Quelques coutumes naturally be understood of a mare
du Nord-est du Comte d'Aberdeen," with its foal and a cow with its calf.
Revue des Traditions populaires, iii. 2 ggg above pp. 1 1 1; so.
(October, 1888) pp. 484-487 (wrong , „ , , ' , ..
pagination ; should be 532-535)- This ' ^ee below, vol. u. p. 1 10.
account, translated into French by M. * The drinking of the draught (called
Loys Brueyre from the author's English the kvkcwv) as a solemn rite in the
and translated by me back from French Eleusinian mysteries is mentioned by
into English, is fuller than the account Clement of Alexandria {Protrept. 21,
given by the same writer in his Notes p. 18, ed. Potter) and Arnobius {Ad-
en the Folk-lore of the North-east of versus Nationes, v. 26). The com-
^SiTO/Zawia? (London, 1881), pp. 181-183. position of the draught is revealed by
I have translated ^^ uiie jument ay ant the author of the Homeric Hymn to
son pottlain" by "a mare in foal," Demeter (verses 206-2 1 1), where he
axiA *' la plus ancie9i77evache ayafit son represents Demeter herself partaking
veau" by "the oldest cow in calf," of the sacred cup. That the compound
because in the author's Notes on the was a kind of thick gruel, half-solid,
Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland half-liquid, is mentioned by Eustathius
(p. 182) we read that the last sheaf was (on Homer, Iliad, xi. 638, p. 870).
" carefully preserved till Christmas or Compare Miss J. E. Harrison, Pro-
New Year morning. On that morning legomena to the Study of Greek Re-
it was given to a mare in foal," etc. ligion. Second Edition (Cambridge,
Otherwise the French words might 1908), pp. 155^^^.
PT. V. VOL. I M
1 62
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The corn-
spirit as a
bride.
originated in a simple harvest supper held by Eleusinian
farmers at the end of the reaping ?
According to a briefer account of the Aberdeenshire
custom, " the last sheaf cut, or ' maiden,' is carried home
in merry procession by the harvesters. It is then pre-
sented to the mistress of the house, who dresses it up
to be preserved till the first mare foals. The maiden
is then taken down and presented to the mare as its
first food. The neglect of this would have untoward
effects upon the foal, and disastrous consequences upon farm
operations generally for the season." ^ In Fifeshire the last
handful of corn, known as the Maiden, is cut by a young
girl and made into the rude figure of a doll, tied with ribbons,
by which it is hung on the wall of the farm-kitchen till the
next spring.^ The custom of cutting the Maiden at harvest
was also observed in Inverness-shire and Sutherlandshire.^
A somewhat maturer but still youthful age is assigned
to the corn-spirit by the appellations of Bride, Oats-
bride, and Wheat-bride, which in Germany are sometimes
bestowed both on the last sheaf and on the woman who binds
it.^ At wheat -harvest near Miiglitz, in Moravia, a small
portion of the wheat is left standing after all the rest has been
reaped. This remnant is then cut, amid the rejoicing of
the reapers, by a young girl who wears a wreath of wheaten
ears on her head and goes by the name of the Wheat-bride.
It is supposed that she will be a real bride that same year.*
^ Rev. J. Macdonald, Religion and
Myth (London, 1893), PP- 14° -J?-,
from MS. notes of Miss J. Ligertwood.
2 Folk-lore Journal, vii. (1889) p.
51 ; The Quarterly Review, clxxii.
(1891) p. 195.
3 As to Inverness-shire my old friend
Mr. Hugh E. Cameron, formerly of
Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire, wrote
to me many years ago : " As a boy, I
remember the last bit of corn cut was
taken home, and neatly tied up with a
ribbon, and then stuck up on the wall
above the kitchen fire-place, and there
it often remained till the ' maiden ' of
the following year took its place.
There was no ceremony about it,
beyond often a struggle as to who
would get, or cut, the last sheaf to
select the ' maiden ' from " ( The Folk-
lore Journal, vii. 1 88 9, pp. 50 sq.).
As to Sutherlandshire my mother was
told by a servant, Isabella Ross, that
in that county " they hang up the
' maiden ' generally over the mantel-
piece (chimney-piece) till the next
harvest. They have always a kirn,
whipped cream, with often a ring in it,
and sometimes meal sprinkled over it.
The girls must all be dressed in lilac
prints, they all dance, and at twelve
o'clock they eat potatoes and herrings "
{op. cit. pp. 53 sq.).
* W. NIannhardt, Die Komddmonen
(Berlin, 1868), p. 30.
^ W. M tiller, Beitrdge zur Volks-
kunde der Deutschen in Miihren
(Vienna and Olmiitz, 1893), P- 327-
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 163
In the upland valley of Alpach, in North Tyrol, the person
who brings the last sheaf into the granary is said to have
the Wheat-bride or the Rye- bride according to the crop,
and is received with great demonstrations of respect and
rejoicing. The people of the farm go out to meet him, bells
are rung, and refreshments offered to him on a tray,^ In
Austrian Silesia a girl is chosen to be the Wheat-bride, and
much honour is paid to her at the harvest-festival.^ Near
Roslin and Stonehaven, in Scotland, the last handful of
corn cut " got the name of ' the bride,' and she was placed
over the bress or chimney-piece ; she had' a ribbon tied
below her numerous ears, and another round her waist." ^
Sometimes the idea implied by the name of Bride The corn-
is worked out more fully by representing the productive ^^^^^ ^^ ,
powers of vegetation as bride and bridegroom. Thus Bride-
in the Vorharz an Oats-man and an Oats-woman, swathed ^°°"-
in straw, dance at the harvest feast.* In South Saxony
an Oats-bridegroom and an Oats-bride figure together at
the harvest celebration. The Oats-bridegroom is a man
completely wrapt in oats-straw ; the Oats -bride is a man
dressed in woman's clothes, but not wrapt in straw.
They are drawn in a waggon to the ale-house, where
the dance takes place. At the beginning of the dance
the dancers pluck the bunches of oats one by one from the
Oats -bridegroom, while he struggles to keep them, till
at last he is completely stript of them and stands bare,
exposed to the laughter and jests of the company.^ In
Austrian Silesia the ceremony of "the Wheat -bride" is
celebrated by the young people at the end of the harvest.
The woman who bound the last sheaf plays the part of the
Wheat-bride, wearing the harvest-crown of wheat ears and
flowers on her head. Thus adorned, standing beside her
Bridegroom in a waggon and attended by bridesmaids, she
is drawn by a pair of oxen, in full imitation of a marriage
1 J. E. Waldfreund, " Volksge- 3 Mr. R. Matheson, in The Folk-
brauche und Aberglaube in Tirol und lore Journal, vii. (1889) pp. 49, 50.
dem Salzburger Gebirg," Zeilschrift * W. Mannhardt, Die Kor?iddmonen
fiir deiitsche Alythologie und Sitten- (Berlin, 1868), p. 30.
kunde, iii. (1855) p. 340. ^ E. Sommer, Sageii, Mdrchen una
^ Th. Vernaleken, Mythen und Gebrduche aus Sachsen U7id Thiiringen
Brauche des Volkes in Oesterreich (Halle, 1846), pp. 160 sq. ; W. Mann-
(\'ienna, 1859), p. 310. hardt, I.e.
1 64
CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN
The corn-
spirit in
the double
form of the
Old Wife
and the
Maiden
simultane-
ously at
harvest in
the High-
lands of
Scotland.
procession, to the tavern, where the dancing is kept up till
morning. Somewhat later in the season the wedding of the
Oats-bride is celebrated with the like rustic pomp. About
Neisse, in Silesia, an Oats-king and an Oats-queen, dressed
up quaintly as a bridal pair, are seated on a harrow and
drawn by oxen into the village.^
In these last instances the corn-spirit is personified in
double form as male and female. But sometimes the spirit
appears in a double female form as both old and young,
corresponding exactly to the Greek Demeter and Persephone,
if my interpretation of these goddesses is right. We have
seen that in Scotland, especially among the Gaelic-speaking
population, the last corn cut is sometimes called the Old
Wife and sometimes the Maiden. Now there are parts
of Scotland in which both an Old Wife iCailleacK) and a
Maiden are cut at harvest. As the accounts of this
custom are not quite clear and consistent, it may be well
to give them first in the words of the original authorities.
Thus the late Sheriff Alexander Nicolson tells us that
there is a Gaelic proverb, " A balk {l^um-iochd) in autumn is
better than a sheaf the more " ; and he explains it by saying
that a leum-iochd or balk " is a strip of a corn-field left
fallow. The fear of being left with the last sheaf of the
harvest, called the cailleach, or gobhar bhacach, always led to
an exciting competition among the reapers in the last field.
The reaper who came on a leum-iochd would of course be
glad to have so much the less to cut." ^ In further explana-
tion of the proverb the writer adds :
" The customs as to the Cailleach and Maighdean-bhuana
seem to have varied somewhat. Two reapers were usually
set to each rig, and according to one account, the man who
was first done got the Maighdean-bhuana or ' Reaping-
Maiden,' while the man who was last got the Cailleach or
' old woman.' The latter term is used in Argyleshire ; the
term Gobhar-bhacach, the lame goat, is used in Skye.
" According to what appears to be the better version, the
1 W. Mannhardt, I.e.-, E. Peter, ^ Alexander Nicolson, A Collection
Volksthiimliches aus Osterreichisch- of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar
Schlesien (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. Phrases, based on Macintosh'' s Collection
269. (Edinburgh and London, 1 88 1 ), p. 248.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 165
competition to avoid the Cailleach was not between reapers but
between neighbouring crofters, and the man who got his
harvest done first sent a handful of corn called the Cailleach
to his neighbour, who passed it on, till it landed with him
who was latest. That man's penalty was to provide for the
dearth of the township, gort a' bhaile, in the ensuing season.
" The Maighdean-bhuana, again, was the last cut hand-
ful of oats, on a croft or farm, and was an object of lively
competition among the reapers. It was tastefully tied
up with ribbons, generally dressed like a doll, and then
hung up on a nail till spring. On the first day of plough-
ing it was solemnly taken down, and given as a Sainnseal
(or handsel) to the horses for luck. It was meant as a sym-
bol that the harvest had been secured, and to ward off the
fairies, representatives of the ethereal and unsubstantial, till
the time came to provide for a new crop." ^ Again, the
Rev. Mr. Campbell of Kilchrenan, on Loch Awe, furnished Dr.
R. C. Maclagan with the following account of the Highland
customs at harvest. The recollections of Mrs. MacCorquodale,
then resident at Kilchrenan, refer to the customs practised
about the middle of the nineteenth century in the wild
and gloomy valley of Glencoe, infamous in history for
the treacherous massacre perpetrated there by the Govern-
ment troops in 1692. "Mrs. MacCorquodale says that
the rivalry was for the Maiden, and for the privilege she
gave of sending the Cailleach to the next neighbour.
The Maiden was represented by the last stalks reaped ;
the Cailleach by a handful taken at random from the
field, perhaps the last rig of the reaper last to finish. The
Cailleach was not dressed but carried after binding to
the neighbour's field. The Maiden was cut in the following
manner. All the reapers gathered round her and kept a
short distance from her. They then threw their hooks
[sickles] at her. The person successful in cutting her down
in this manner was the man whose possession she became.
Mrs. MacCorquodale understood that the man of a township
who got the Cailleach finally was supposed to be doomed to
poverty for his want of energy. (Gaelic : treiibhantas —
valour.)
^ A. Nicolson, op. cit. pp. 415 sq.
1 66 CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
" A sample of the toast to the Cailleach at the harvest
entertainment was as follows : ' The Cailleach is with . . .
and is now with (me) since I was the last. I drink to her
health. Since she assisted me in harvest, it is likely that it
is with me she will abide during the winter.' In explaining
the above toast Mr. Campbell says that it signifies that the
Cailleach is always with agriculturists. ' She has been with
others before and is now with me (the proposer of the toast).
Though I did my best to avoid her I welcome her as my
assistant, and am prepared to entertain her during the winter.'
Another form of the toast was as follows : ' To your health,
good wife, who for harvest has come to help us, and if I live
I'll try to support you when winter comes.'
" John MacCorquodale, Kilchrenan, says that at Crian-
larich in Strath Fillan, they make a Cailleach of sticks and
a turnip, old clothes and a pipe. In this case the o.'i'^^y
passed in succession to seven farms, which he mentioned, and
finally settled with an innkeeper. The list suggested that
the upper farms stood a bad chance, and perhaps that a
prosperous innkeeper could more easily bear up against the
reproach and loss ij) of supporting the Cailleach.
" Duncan Maclntyre, Kilchrenan, says that in one case
where the last field to be reaped was the most fertile land on
the farm, the corn first cut in it, which was taken near the edge,
was reserved to make a Cailleach, should the owner be so
happy as to be able to pass her on to his neighbour. The
last blades cut were generally in the middle or best part of
the field. These in any event became the Maiden." Lastly,
Dr. Maclagan observes that " having directed the attention
of Miss Kerr, Port Charlotte, Islay, to the practice of having
two difTerent bunches on the mainland of Argyle, she informs
me that in Islay and Kintyre the last handful is the Cailleach,
and they have no Maiden. The same is the custom in Ber-
nara and other parts of the Western Isles, while in Mull the
last handful is the Maiden, and they have no Cailleach. In
North Uist the habit still prevails of putting the Cailleach
over-night among the standing corn of lazy crofters." ^
The general rule to which these various accounts point
^ R. C. Maclagan, " Corn -maiden in Argyleshire," Folk-lore, vii. (1896)
pp. ■]% sq.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 167
seems to be that, where both a Maiden and an Old Wife in these
iCailleacJi) are fashioned out of the reaped corn at harvest, the the^oid
Maiden is ahvays made out of the last stalks left standing, and Wiferepre-
is kept by the farmer on whose land it was cut ; while the Old qi^ corn of
Wife is made out of other stalks, sometimes out of the first i^st year,
stalks cut, and is regularly passed on to a laggard farmer Maiden the
who happens to be still reaping after his brisker neighbour new com
has cut all his corn. Thus while each farmer keeps his own year.
Maiden, as the embodiment of the young and fruitful spirit
of the corn, he passes on the Old Wife as soon as he can to
a neighbour, and so the old lady may make the round of all
the farms in the district before she finds a place in which to
lay her venerable head. The farmer with whom she finally
takes up her abode is of course the one who has been the last
of all the countryside to finish reaping his crops, and thus the
distinction of entertaining her is rather an invidious one.
Similarly we saw that in Pembrokeshire, where the last corn
cut is called, not the Maiden, but the Hag, she is passed on
hastily to a neighbour who is still at work in his fields and
who receives his aged visitor with anything but a transport
of joy. If the Old Wife represents the corn-spirit of the
past year, as she probably does wherever she is contrasted
with and opposed to a Maiden, it is natural enough that
her faded charms should have less attractions for the hus-
bandman than the buxom form of her daughter, who may
be expected to become in her turn the mother of the golden
grain when the revolving year has brought round another
autumn. The same desire to get rid of the effete Mother
of the Corn by palming her off on other people comes out
clearly in some of the customs observed at the close of
threshing, particularly in the practice of passing on a hideous
straw puppet to a neighbour farmer who is still threshing
his corn.^
The harvest customs just described are strikingly analo- Analogy of
gous to the spring customs which we reviewed in the first customsTo
part of this work, (i) As in the spring customs the tree- the spring
spirit is represented both by a tree and by a person,^ so in Europe.
^ See above, p. 149, where, how- 2 See The Magic Art and the Evo-
ever, the coin-spirit is conceived as an lution of Kings, ii. 73 sgq.
Old Man.
i68 CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap.
the harvest customs the corn-spirit is represented both by
the last sheaf and by the person who cuts or binds or
threshes it. The equivalence of the person to the sheaf is
shewn by giving him or her the same name as the sheaf ; by
wrapping him or her in it ; and by the rule observed in
some places, that when the sheaf is called the Mother, it
must be made up into human shape by the oldest married
woman, but that when it is called the Maiden, it must be
cut by the youngest girl.^ Here the age of the personal
representative of the corn-spirit corresponds with that of the
supposed age of the corn-spirit, just as the human victims
offered by the Mexicans to promote the growth of the maize
varied with the age of the maize.^ For in the Mexican, as
in the European, custom the human beings were probably
representatives of the corn-spirit rather than victims offered
to it. (2) Again, the same fertilising influence which the
tree-spirit is supposed to exert over vegetation, cattle, and
even women ^ is ascribed to the corn-spirit. Thus, its sup-
posed influence on vegetation is shewn by the practice of
taking some of the grain of the last sheaf (in which the
corn-spirit is regularly supposed to be present), and scattering
it among the young corn in spring or mixing it with the
seed-corn.^ Its influence on animals is shewn by giving the
last sheaf to a mare in foal, to a cow in calf, and to horses
at the first ploughing.^ Lastly, its influence on women is
indicated by the custom of delivering the Mother-sheaf, made
into the likeness of a pregnant woman, to the farmer's wife ; ^
by the belief that the woman who binds the last sheaf will
have a child next year ; '^ perhaps, too, by the idea that the
person who gets it will soon be married.^
The spring Plainly, therefore, these spring and harvest customs are
andharvest i^^ggfj ^^ |.j^g Same ancient modes of thought, and form parts
customs of & ' ir
Europe are of the Same primitive heathendom, which was doubtless
pdmit'ive^ practised by our forefathers long before the dawn of history.
heathen \ Above, pp. 134, 137, 138 sq., ^ See above, p. 135.
''^2^'Set^below ^'''^'2^'^' ' ^^°^'^' P- ^4.5- Compare A.
, ^, -, .' "/■ -^ , ^Z ^ , . Kuhn, Sasren, Gebrmiche nnd Mdrcheit
^ The Magic Art and the Evolution ^^^^ Westfalen (Leipsic, 1S59), ii. p.
ofKzrtg^,^x.^Tsqq. 185, §516.
* Above, pp. 134, 135. J' s J
s Above, pp. 141, 155, 156, 158, * Above, pp. 136, 139, 155, 157
160 sq., 162, 165. sq., 162; compare p. 160.
ritual.
V CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN 169
Amongst the marks of a primitive ritual we may note the
following : —
1. No special class of persons is set apart for the per- Marks of a
formance of the rites ; in other words, there are no priests. ruJ^r^'^
The rites may be performed by any one, as occasion demands.
2. No special places are set apart for the performance
of the rites ; in other words, there are no temples. The
rites may be performed anywhere, as occasion demands.
3. Spirits, not gods, are recognised, {a) As distin-
guished from gods, spirits are restricted in their operations
to definite departments of nature. Their names are general,
not proper. Their attributes are generic, rather than indi-
vidual ; in other words, there is an indefinite number of
spirits of each class, and the individuals of a class are all
much alike ; they have no definitely marked individuality ;
no accepted traditions are current as to their origin, life,
adventures, and character, {h) On the other hand gods, as
distinguished from spirits, are not restricted to definite
departments of nature. It is true that there is generally
some one department over which they preside as their
special province ; but they are not rigorously confined to it ;
they can exert their power for good or evil in many other
spheres of nature and life. Again, they bear individual or
proper names, such as Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus ; and
their individual characters and histories are fixed by current
myths and the representations of art.
4. The rites are magical rather than propitiatory.
In other words, the desired objects are attained, not by
propitiating the favour of divine beings through sacrifice,
prayer, and praise, but by ceremonies which, as I have already
explained,^ are believed to influence the course of nature
directly through a physical sympathy or resemblance between
the rite and the effect which it is the intention of the rite
to produce.
Judged by these tests, the spring and harvest customs of Reasons
our European peasantry deserve to rank as primitive. For [^^'j^^^'^^"
no special class of persons and no special places are set spring and
exclusively apart for their performance ; they may be per- ^usuj^i's of
formed by any one, master or man, mistress or maid, boy or modem
^ The Alagic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 220 sqq.
I70 CORN-MOTHER AND CORN-MAIDEN chap, v
Europe as girl ; they are practised, not in temples or churches, but in
aprimitive ^^ woods and mcadows, beside brooks, in barns, on harvest
fields and cottage floors. The supernatural beings whose
existence is taken for granted in them are spirits rather than
deities : their functions are limited to certain well-defined
departments of nature : their names are general, like the
Barley-mother, the Old Woman, the Maiden, not proper
names like Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus. Their generic
attributes are known, but their individual histories and
characters are not the subject of myths. For they exist in
classes rather than as individuals, and the members of each
class are indistinguishable. For example, every farm has its
Corn-mother, or its Old Woman, or its Maiden ; but every
Corn-mother is much like every other Corn-mother, and so
with the Old Women and Maidens. Lastly, in these harvest,
as in the spring customs, the ritual is magical rather than
propitiatory. This is shewn by throwing the Corn-mother
into the river in order to secure rain and dew for the
crops ;^ by making the Old Woman heavy in order to get
a heavy crop next year ; ^ by strewing grain from the last
sheaf amongst the young crops in spring ; ^ and by giving
the last sheaf to the cattle to make them thrive.*
1 Above, p. 146. The common 134, 137, 143, 144, 145 ; Adonis,
custom of wetting the last sheaf and Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp.
its bearer is no doubt also a rain- 195-197-
charm; indeed the intention to pro- 2 Above, pp. i^^sq., 138, 139, 152.
cure rain or make the corn grow is ^ Above, p. 134.
sometimes avowed. See above, pp. * Above, pp. 134, 155, 158, 161.
CHAPTER VI
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
§ I. The Corn-mother iii America
European peoples, ancient and modern, have not been The Corn-
singular in personifying the corn as a mother goddess. The ™°'^^'" '"
same simple idea has suggested itself to other agricultural lands.
races in distant parts of the world, and has been applied by
them to other indigenous cereals than barley and wheat. If
Europe has its Wheat -mother and its Barley- mother,
America has its Maize- mother and the East Indies their
Rice-mother. These personifications I will now illustrate,
beginning with the American personification of the maize.
We have seen that among European peoples it is a common The Maize
custom to keep the plaited corn-stalks of the last sheaf, or the '"°''i*^''
i^ r J among the
puppet which is formed out of them, in the farm-house from Peruvian
harvest to harvest.^ The intention no doubt is, or rather origin-
ally was, by preserving the representative of the corn-spirit
to maintain the spirit itself in life and activity throughout
the year, in order that the corn may grow and the crops be
good. This interpretation of the custom is at all events ren-
dered highly probable by a similar custom observed by the
ancient Peruvians, and thus described by the old Spanish
historian Acosta : — " They take a certain portion of the most
fruitful of the maize that grows in their farms, the which
they put in a certain granary which they do call Pirua,
with certain ceremonies, watching three nights ; they put
this maize in the richest garments they have, and being
thus wrapped and dressed, they worship this Pirun, and hold
^ Above, pp. 136, 138, 140, 143, W. Mannhardt, Die Kornddmonen,
152, 153. 154, 155' 156, 157, 158: pp. 7, 26.
171
172
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
The Maize-
mother, the
Quinoa-
mother,
the Coca-
mother,
and the
Potato-
mother
among the
Peruvian
Indians.
it in great veneration, saying it is the mother of the maize of
their inheritances, and that by this means the maize augments
and is preserved. In this month [the sixth month, answer-
ing to May] they make a particular sacrifice, and the witches
demand of this Ph^ua if it hath strength sufficient to con-
tinue until the next year ; and if it answers no, then they
carry this maize to the farm to burn, whence they brought
it, according to every man's power ; then they make another
Pima, with the same ceremonies, saying that they renew it,
to the end the seed of maize may not perish, and if it
answers that it hath force sufficient to last longer, they leave
it until the next year. This foolish vanity continueth to
this day, and it is very common amongst the Indians to
have these Piruas." ^
In this description of the custom there seems to be
some error. Probably it was the dressed-up bunch of
maize, not the granary {Pirud), which was worshipped
by the Peruvians and regarded as the Mother of the
Maize. This is confirmed by what we know of the Peruvian
custom from another source. The Peruvians, we are told,
believed all useful plants to be animated by a divine being
who causes their growth. According to the particular plant,
these divine beings were called the Maize-mother {Zara-
mama), the Quinoa-mother {Quinoa-mama), the Coca-mother
{Coca-inavia), and the Potato-mother {Axo-niania). Figures
of these divine mothers were made respectively of ears of
maize and leaves of the quinoa and coca plants ; they were
dressed in women's clothes and worshipped. Thus the
Maize-mother was represented by a puppet made of stalks of
maize dressed in full female attire ; and the Indians believed
that " as mother, it had the power of producing and giving
birth to much maize." ^ Probably, therefore, Acosta mis-
^ J. <le Acosta, Natural and Moral
History of the Indies, bk. v. ch. 28,
vol. ii. p. 374 (Hakluyt Society,
London, 1880). In quoting the pass-
age I have modernised the spelling.
The original Spanish text of Acosta's
work was reprinted in a convenient
form at Madrid in 1894. See vol. ii.
p. 117 of that edition.
2 W. Mannhardt, Mylhohgischc
Forschiingen, pp. 342 sq. Mann-
hardt's authority is a Spanish tract
( Carta pastorale de exo>-tacion e iiistrnc-
cion contra las idolatrias de los Indies
del ar^obispado de Lima) by Pedro de
Villagomez, Archbishop of Lima,
published at Lima in 1649, and com-
municated to Mannhardt by J- /•
V. Tschudi. The Carta Pastorale itself
seems to be partly based on an earlier
THE CORN-MOTHER IN AMERICA
173
understood his informant, and the Mother of the Maize which
he describes was not the granary (Pirua), but the bunch of
maize dressed in rich vestments. The Peruvian Mother of
the Maize, Hke the harvest-Maiden at Balquhidder, was kept
for a year in order that by her means the corn might grow
and multiply. But lest her strength might not suffice to last
work, the Extirpacion de la Idolatria
del Piru. Dirigido al Key N.S. eii
Su real conseio de Indias, por el Padre
Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Com-
pafiia de Jesus (Lima, 1621). A copy
of this work is possessed by the British
Museum, where I consulted it. The
writer explains (p. 16) that the Maize-
mothers {Zaramamas) are of three
sorts, namely (i) those which are
made of maize stalks, dressed up like
women, (2) those which are carved of
stone in the likeness of cobs of maize,
and (3) those which consist simply of
fruitful stalks of maize or of two
maize-cobs naturally joined together.
These last, the writer tells us, were the
principal Za7'atna?nas, and were revered
by the natives as Mothers of the Maize.
Similarly, when two potatoes were
found growing together the Indians
called them Potato - mothers (Axo-
mamas) and kept them in order to
get a good crop of potatoes. As
Arriaga's work is rare, it may be well
to give his account of the Maize-
mothers, Coca-mothers, and Potato-
mothers in his own words. He says
(p. 16): '■'■ Zarainamas, son de tres
maneras, y son las qtie se quentan entre
las cosas halladas en los pueblos. La
pn-imera es tma como mutieca hecha de
cahas de maiz, vestida como muger con
su anaco, y llicilla, y sus topos de
plafa, y entienden, que como madre
tiene vh'tud de engendrar, y pa?-ir
mucho maiz. A este viodo tienen
tambieii Cocamamas para augmento de
la coca. Otras son de piedra labradas
como choclos, mazorcas de maiz, con sus
p-anos relevados, y de estas suelen tener
muchas en higar de Conopas [household
gods]. Otras son algutias canasje7-tiles
de maiz, que con la Jertilidad de la
tierra dieron muchas macorcas, y
gratides, o qtiando sale7t dos macorcas
juntas, y estas son las principales,
Zaramamas, y assi las reveretician
como a madres del maiz, a estas llaman
tambien Htiantayzai-a, Ayrihuayzara.
A este tercer genero no le dan la
adoracion que a Huaca, ni Conopa,
sino que le tienen supersticiosamente
como una cosa sag>-ada, y colgando
estas canas con tnuchos choclos de unos
ramos de sauce bailen con ellas el bayle,
que llaman Ayj-ihua, y acabado el
bayle, las queman, y sacrijican a Libiac
para que les de buena cosecha. Con
la misma supersticion guardan las
mazorcas del maiz, que salen muy
pintadas, que llaman Micsazara,
Mantayzara, o Caullazara, y otros que
Hainan Piruazai-a, que son otras
macorcas en que van subiendo los
granos no derechos sino haziendo
carcuol. Estas Micsazara, Pirua-
zai-a, ponen supersticiosamente en los
montones de maiz, y en las Piruas (que
son dofide guardan el maiz) paraque se
las guarde, y el dia de las exhibiciones
se Junta tanto de estas mazorcas, que
tienen bien que comer las mulas. La
misma supersticion tienen con las que
llama?t Axomamas, que son qtiando
salen algunas papas juntas, y las
guardan para tener buena cosecha de
papas.'''' The exhibiciones 'Wtx^xtitxt^^
to are the occasions when the Indians
brought forth their idols and other
relics of superstition and delivered
them to the ecclesiastical visitors.
At Tarija in Bolivia, down to the
present time, a cross is set up at
harvest in the maize-fields, and on it
all maize - spadices growing as twins
are hung. They are called Pacha-
mamas (Earth-mothers) and are thought
to bring good harvests. See Baron
E. Nordenskiold, "Travels on the
Boundaries of Bolivia and Argentina,"
The Geographical Journal, xxi. (1903)
PP- 5i7> 518. Compare E. J. PajTie,
History oj the New World called
America (O.xford, 1892), i. 414 sq.
174
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
Customs of
the ancient
Mexicans
at the
maize-
harvesl.
till the next harvest, she was asked in the course of the
year how she felt, and if she answered that she felt weak, she
was burned and a fresh Mother of the Maize made, " to the
end the seed of maize may not perish." Here, it may be
observed, we have a strong confirmation of the explanation
already given of the custom of killing the god, both periodic-
ally and occasionally. The Mother of the Maize was
allowed, as a rule, to live through a year, that being the
period during which her strength might reasonably be sup-
posed to last unimpaired ; but on any symptom of her
strength failing she was put to death, and a fresh and vigorous
Mother of the Maize took her place, lest the maize which
depended on her for its existence should languish and decay.
Hardly less clearly does the same train of thought come
out in the harvest customs formerly observed by the Zapotecs
of Mexico. At harvest the priests, attended by the nobles
and people, went in procession to the maize fields, where they
picked out the largest and finest sheaf This they took
with great ceremony to the town or village, and placed it in
the temple upon an altar adorned with wild flowers. After
sacrificing to the harvest god, the priests carefully wrapped
up the sheaf in fine linen and kept it till seed-time. Then
the priests and nobles met again at the temple, one of them
bringing the skin of a wild beast, elaborately ornamented, in
which the linen cloth containing the sheaf was enveloped.
The sheaf was then carried once more in procession to the
field from which it had been taken. Here a small cavity or
subterranean chamber had been prepared, -in which the
precious sheaf was deposited, wrapt in its various envelopes.
After sacrifice had been offered to the gods of the fields for
an abundant crop the chamber was closed and covered over
with earth. Immediately thereafter the sowing began.
Finally, when the time of harvest drew near, the buried sheaf
was solemnly disinterred by the priests, who distributed the
grain to all who asked for it. The packets of grain so dis-
tributed were carefully preserved as talismans till the harvest.^
In these ceremonies, which continued to be annually cele-
' Brasseur de Boiirbourg, Hisloire
des Nations civilises du Mexique et de
C Anti^riqiie Centrale (Patis, 1857-
1859), iii. 40 sqq. Compare id., iii.
505 sq. ; E. J. Payne, History of the
New IVorld failed America, i. 419 sq.
J
VI THE CORN-MOTHER IN AMERICA 175
brated long after the Spanish conquest, the intention of keep-
ing the finest sheaf buried in the maize field from seed-time
to harvest was undoubtedly to quicken the growth of the
maize.
A fuller and to some extent different account of the Sahagun's
ancient Mexican worship of the maize has been given us fheancLm
by the Franciscan monk Bernardino de Sahagun, who arrived Mexican
in Mexico in 1529, only eight years after its conquest by '°'°"'
the Spaniards, and devoted the remaining sixty-one years
of his long life to labouring among the Indians for their
moral and spiritual good. Uniting the curiosity of a
scientific enquirer to the zeal of a missionary, and adorning
both qualities with the humanity and benevolence of a
good man, he obtained from the oldest and most learned
of the Indians accounts of their ancient customs and beliefs,
and embodied them in a work which, for combined interest
of matter and fulness of detail, has perhaps never been
equalled in the records of aboriginal peoples brought into
contact with European civilisation. This great document,
after lying neglected in the dust of Spanish archives for cen-
turies, was discovered and published almost simultaneously
in Mexico and England in the first half of the nineteenth
century. It exists in the double form of an Aztec text and
a Spanish translation, both due to Sahagun himself Only
the Spanish version has hitherto been published in full, but
the original Aztec text, to judge by the l&w extracts of it
which have been edited and translated, appears to furnish
much more ample details on many points, and in the interest
of learning it is greatly to be desired that a complete edition
and translation of it should be given to the world.
Fortunately, among the sections of this great work which Sahaguns
have been edited and translated from the Aztec original into of^th"'^''°"
German by Professor Eduard Seler of Berlin is a long one Mexican
describing the religious festivals of the ancient Mexican goddess
calendar.^ From it we learn some valuable particulars as to and her
festival.
^ E. Seler, " Altmexikanische of the Mexican gods, has been edited
Studien, ii.," Veroffentlichungen aiis and translated into German by Pro-
dem kiviiglicken Mitseum fiir Volker- fessor E. Seler in the same series
kundc, vi. (Berlin, 1899) 2/4 Heft, of publications ("Altmexikanische
pp. 67 sqq. Another chapter of Studien," Veroffentlichungen aus dent
Sahagun'swork,describing the costumes kduiglichen Museum fiir Volkerkunde,
176 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
the worship of the Maize-goddess and the ceremonies observed
by the Mexicans for the purpose of ensuring a good crop
of maize. The festival was the fourth of the Aztec year,
and went by the name of the Great Vigil. It fell on a date
which corresponds to the seventh of April. The name of
the Maize-goddess was Chicome couatl, and the Mexicans
conceived and represented her in the form of a woman, red
in face and arms and legs, wearing a paper crown dyed
vermilion, and clad in garments of the hue of ripe cherries.
No doubt the red colour of the goddess and her garments
referred to the deep orange hue of the ripe maize ; it was
like the yellow hair of the Greek corn-goddess Demeter.
She was supposed to make all kinds of maize, beans, and
vegetables to grow. On the day of the festival the Mexicans
sent out to the maize-fields and fetched from every field
a plant of maize, which they brought to their houses and
greeted as their maize - gods, setting them up in their
dwellings, clothing them in garments, and placing food
before them. And after sunset they carried the maize-
plants to the temple of the Maize-goddess, where they
snatched them from one another and fought and struck
each other with them. Further, at this festival they brought
to the temple of the Maize-goddess the maize-cobs which
were to be used in the sowing. The cobs were carried by
three maidens in bundles of seven wrapt in red paper. One
of the girls was small with short hair, another was older
with long hair hanging down, and the third was full-grown
with her hair wound round her head. Red feathers were
gummed to the arms and legs of the three maidens and
their faces were painted, probably to resemble the red
Maize-goddess, whom they may be supposed to have
personated at various stages of the growth of the corn.
The maize-cobs which they brought to the temple of the
Maize-goddess were called by the name of the Maize-god
Cinteotl, and they were afterwards deposited in the granary
i. 4 (Berlin, 1890) pp. 1 17 sqq.). R. P. Fi-ay Bernardino de Sahagtin,
Sahagun's work as a whole is known Paris, 1 880). As to the life and
to me only in the excellent French character of Sahagun see M. R.
translation of Messrs. D. Jourdanet Simeon's introduction to the transla-
and R. Simeon (Hisfoire Ghiirale des tion, pp. vii. sqq.
choses de la NouveUe-Espagne par le
VI THE CORN-MOTHER IN AMERICA 177
and kept there as " the heart of the granary " till the sowing
time came round, when they were used as seed.^
The eastern Indians of North America, who subsisted The Corn-
to a larcre extent by the cultivation of maize, crenerally '"°^'^'^'
o J ' & ^ among the
conceived the spirit of the maize as a woman, and supposed North
that the plant itself had sprung originally from the blood i,[dfanT"
drops or the dead body of the Corn Woman. In the sacred
formulas of the Cherokee the corn is sometimes invoked as
"the Old Woman," and one of their myths relates how a
hunter saw a fair woman issue from a single green stalk of
corn." The Iroquois believe the Spirit of the Corn, the
Spirit of Beans, and the Spirit of Squashes to be three
sisters clad in the leaves of their respective plants, very fond
of each other, and delighting to dwell together. This divine
trinity is known by the name of De-o-ha-ko, which means
" Our Life " or " Our Supporters." The three persons of
the trinity have no individual names, and are never
mentioned separately except by means of description. The
Indians have a legend that of old the corn was easily
cultivated, yielded abundantly, and had a grain exceedingly
rich in oil, till the Evil One, envious of this good gift of
the Great Spirit to man, went forth into the fields and
blighted them. And still, when the wind rustles in the
corn, the pious Indian fancies he hears the Spirit of the
Corn bemoaning her blighted fruitfulness.^ The Huichol
Indians of Mexico imagine maize to be a little girl, who
may sometimes be heard weeping in the fields ; so afraid
is she of the wild beasts that eat the corn.*
^ B. de Sahagun, Aztec text of book of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
ii., translated by Professor E. Seler, Part I. (Washington, 1900) pp. 423,
" Altmexikanische Studien, ii.," 432. '$,&e.{^xx\!ae.x Adonis, Attis, Osiris,
Verdffentlichnngen aus dem k'dniglichen Second Edition, pp. 296 sq.
Museum fUr Volkerkunde, vi. 2/4 Heft „_ - .,
,T-, ,. o ^ 00 -ri. ^ L. H. Morgan, Leasrue of the
(Berlin, 1899), pp. 188-194. The ^ • /t> u . o, 1 ^,
V ' ^='" ^^ . 7^ . . Iroqziois (Rochester, 1851), pp. 161
account of the ceremonies given in the ^ ^ . ,.' ^ -"^ ," y
„ . , . r c 1. > 1 • sq., 199. According to the Iroquois
Spanish version of Sahagun s work is a ^? 1 .. r ..i, u
^ , , , o T> J the corn plant sprang from the bosom
good deal more summary. See B. de , . f, / , ^ ^ ry ■ -^ r^
° , TT- , ■ ^f , 7 J 7. of the mother of the Great Spirit after
Sahasjun, Histotre Geiierale aes choses . i_ • 1 /t tt tvt ^ -^
J 1 -KT ij T- J. /n • ,oo^\ her burial (L. H. Morgan, op. cit.
de la Nouvelle Espame (Pans, 1880), ^ \ b ■> r
pp. 94-96. ^ ^^
2 J. Mooney, " Myths of the * C. Lumholtz, Unknotvn Mexico
Cherokee,'" Nineteenth Annual Report (London, 1903), ii. 280.
PT. V. VOL. I
178 l^HE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
S 2. The Mother-cotton in the Punjaub
The In the Punjaub, to the east of the Jumna, when the
^°*'^^''; cotton boles be^in to burst, it is usual to select the largest
cotton in & ' t3
the plant in the field, sprinkle it with butter-milk and rice-water,
Punjaub. ^^^ ^^^ \i\n6. to it pieces of cotton taken from the other
plants of the field. This selected plant is called Sirdar or
Bhogaldal, that is " mother-cotton," from bhogla, a name
sometimes given to a large cotton-pod, and dai (for daiyd),
" a mother," and after it has been saluted, prayers are
offered that the other plants may resemble it in the richness
of their produce.^
S 3. The Barley Bride among the Berbers
The Barley The Conception of the corn-spirit as a bride seems
^"^"^^ , to come out clearly in a ceremony still practised by
among the ■' j i. j
Berbers. the Berbers near Tangier, in Morocco. When the women
assemble in the fields to weed the green barley or reap the
crops, they take with them a straw figure dressed like a
woman, and set it up among the corn. Suddenly a group of
horsemen from a neighbouring village gallops up and carries
off the straw puppet amid the screams and cries of the women.
However, the ravished ^^gy is rescued by another band of
mounted men, and after a struggle it remains, more or less
dishevelled, in the hands of the women. That this pretended
abduction is a mimic marriage appears from a Berber
custom in accordance with which, at a real wedding, the
bridegroom carries off his seemingly unwilling bride on horse-
back, while she screams and pretends to summon her friends
to her rescue. No fixed date is appointed for the simulated
abduction of the straw woman from the barley-field, the time
depends upon the state of the crops, but the day and hour
are made public before the event. Each village used to prac-
tise this mimic contest for possession of the straw woman,
who probably represents the Barley Bride, but nowadays the
custom is growing obsolete.'^
1 H. M. Elliot, Supplemental Glos- - W. B. Harris, "The Berbers of
sary of Terms used in the North- West- Morocco," Journal of the A7it/iro-
ern Provinces, edited by J. Beames pological Institu.'e, xxvii. (189S) p.
(London, 1869), i. 254. 68.
VI THE BARLEY BRIDE AMONG THE BERBERS 179
An earlier account of what seems to be the same practice Another
runs as follows : " There is a curious custom which seems to ^^'^Q""' ^^
. the Barley
be a relic of their pagan masters, who made this and the Bride
adjoining regions of North Africa the main granary of their BTrbefs'^^
Latin empire. When the young corn has sprung up, which
it does about the middle of February, the women of the
villages make up the figure of a female, the size of a very
large doll, which they dress in the gaudiest fashion they can
contrive, covering it with ornaments to which all in the
village contribute something ; and they give it a tall, peaked
head-dress. This image they carry in procession round
their fields, screaming and singing a peculiar ditty. The
doll is borne by the foremost woman, who must yield it to
any one who is quick enough to take the lead of her, which
is the cause of much racing and squabbling. The men also
have a similar custom, which they perform on horseback.
They call the image Mata. These ceremonies are said by
the people to bring good luck. Their efficacy ought to be
great, for you frequently see crowds of men engaged in
their performances running and galloping recklessly over the
young crops of wheat and barley. Such customs are
directly opposed to the faith of Islam, and I never met with
a Moor who could in any way enlighten me as to their
origin. The Berber tribes, the most ancient race now
remaining in these regions, to which they give the name, are
the only ones which retain this antique usage, and it is
viewed by the Arabs and dwellers in the town as a remnant
of idolatry." ^ We may conjecture that this gaudily dressed
effigy of a female, which the Berber women carry about
their fields when the corn is sprouting, represents the Corn-
mother, and that the procession is designed to promote the
growth of the crops by imparting to them the quickening
influence of the goddess. We can therefore understand why Competi-
there should be a competition among the women for the [J^°"^ ^^'^
possession of the effigy ; each woman probably hopes to session of
secure for herself and her crops a larger measure of fertility thatrewe-
by appropriating the image of the Corn - mother. The sents the
competition on horseback among the men is no doubt to be mother
^ Sir John Drummond Hay, Western Animals (1844), p. 9, quoted in Folk-
Barbary, its Wild Tribes and Savage lore, vii. (1896) pp. 306 sq.
i8o
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
explained similarly ; they, too, race with each other in their
eagerness to possess themselves of an effigy, perhaps of a
male power of the corn, by whose help they expect to pro-
cure a heavy crop. Such contests for possession of the
corn-spirit embodied in the corn-stalks are common, as we
have seen, among the reapers on the harvest fields of
Europe. Perhaps they help to explain some of the contests
in the Eleusinian games, among which horse-races as well as
foot-races were included.^
Compari-
son of the
European
ritual of
the corn
with the
Indonesian
ritual of
the rice.
The Indo-
nesian
ritual of
the rice is
based on
the belief
that the
rice is
animated
by a soul.
8 4. The Rice-mother in the East Indies
If the reader still feels any doubts as to the meaning
of the harvest customs which have been practised within
living memory by European peasants, these doubts may
perhaps be dispelled by comparing the customs observed at
the rice-harvest by the Malays and Dyaks of the East Indies.
For these Eastern peoples have not, like our peasantry,
advanced beyond the intellectual stage at which the customs
originated ; their theory and their practice are still in
unison ; for them the quaint rites which in Europe have
long dwindled into mere fossils, the pastime of clowns and
the puzzle of the learned, are still living realities of which
they can render an intelligible and truthful account. Hence
a study of their beliefs and usages concerning the rice may
throw some light on the true meaning of the ritual of the
corn in ancient Greece and modern Europe.
Now the whole of the ritual which the Malays and
Dyaks observe in connexion with the rice is founded on the
simple conception of the rice as animated by a soul like
that which these people attribute to mankind. They explain
the phenomena of reproduction, growth, decay and death in
the rice on the same principles on which they explain the
corresponding phenomena in human beings. They imagine
that in the fibres of the plant, as in the body of a man,
there is a certain vital element, which is so far independent
of the plant that it may for a time be completely separated
from it without fatal effects, though if its absence be
prolonged beyond certain limits the plant will wither and
^ See above, pp. 70 sqq.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES i8i
die. This vital yet separable element is what, for the want
of a better word, we must call the soul of a plant, just as a
similar vital and separable element is commonly supposed
to constitute the soul of man ; and on this theory or myth
of the plant-soul is built the whole worship of the cereals,
just as on the theory or myth of the human soul is built
the whole worship of the dead, — a towering superstructure
reared on a slender and precarious foundation.
The strict parallelism between the Indonesian ideas Parallelism
about the soul of man and the soul of rice is well brought !f*T^"
fc> the human
out by Mr. R. J. Wilkinson in the following passage : " The soui and
spirit of life, — which, according to the ancient Indonesian soui?^^*
belief, existed in all things, even in what we should now
consider inanimate objects — is known as the semangat. It
was not a ' soul ' in the modern English sense, since it was
not the exclusive possession of mankind, its separation from
the body did not necessarily mean death, and its nature may
possibly not have been considered immortal. At the present
day, if a Malay feels faint, he will describe his condition by
saying that his ' spirit of life ' is weak or is ' flying ' from his
body ; he sometimes appeals to it to return : ' Hither, hither,
bird of my soul.' Or again, if a Malay lover wishes to
influence the mind of a girl, he may seek to obtain control
of her semangat, for he believes that this spirit of active and
vigorous life must quit the body when the body sleeps and
so be liable to capture by the use of magic arts. It is,
however, in the ceremonies connected with the so-called
' spirit of the rice-crops ' that the peculiar characteristics of
the semangat come out most clearly. The Malay considers
it essential that the spirit of life should not depart from the
rice intended for next year's sowing as otherwise the dead
seed would fail to produce any crop whatever. He, there-
fore, approaches the standing rice-crops at harvest-time in a
deprecatory manner ; he addresses them in endearing terms ;
he offers propitiatory sacrifices ; he fears that he may scare
away the timorous ' bird of life ' by the sight of a weapon or
the least sign of violence. He must reap the seed-rice, but
he does it with a knife of peculiar shape, such that the cruel
blade is hidden away beneath the reaper's fingers and does
not alarm the ' soul of the rice.' When once the seed-rice
i82 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
has been harvested, more expeditious reaping-tools may be
employed, since it is clearly unnecessary to retain the spirit
of life in grain that is only intended for the cooking-pot.
Similar rites attend all the processes of rice-cultivation — the
sowing and the planting-out as well as the harvest, — for at
each of these stages there is a risk that the vitality of the
crop may be ruined if the bird of life is scared away. In
the language used by the high-priests of these very ancient
ceremonies we constantly find references to Sri (the Hindu
Goddess of the Crops), to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge,
and to Adam who, according to Moslem tradition, was the
first planter of cereals ; — many of these references only
represent the attempts of the conservative Malays to make
their old religions harmonize with later beliefs. Beneath
successive layers of religious veneer, we see the animism of
the old Indonesians, the theory of a bird-spirit of life, and
the characteristic view that the best protection against evil
lies in gentleness and courtesy to all animate and inanimate
things." ^
The soul- " It is a familiar fact," says another eminent authority on
the East Indies, " that the Indonesian imagines rice to be
animated, to be provided with ' soul-stuff,' Since rice is
everywhere cultivated in the Indian Archipelago, and
with some exceptions is the staple food, we need not
wonder that the Indonesian conceives the rice to be not
merely animated in the ordinary sense but to be possessed
of a soul-stuff which in strength and dignity ranks with that
of man. Thus the Bataks apply the same word tondi to
the soul-stuff of rice and the soul-stuff of human beings.
Whereas the Dyaks of Poelopetak give the name of gana to
the soul-stuff of things, animals, and plants, they give the
name of hanibaruan to the soul-stuff of rice as well as of
^ R. J. Wilkinson (of the Civil Ser- forming and vanishes after harvest,
vice of the Federated Malay States), Hence no one may drive away, much
Malay Beliefs (London and Leyden, less kill, these birds ; to do so would
1906), pp. 49-51. On the conception not only injure the crop, the sacrilegious
of the soul as a bird, see Taboo and the wretch himself would suffer from sick-
Perils of the Soul, pp. 33 sqq. The ness, which might end in blindness.
Toradjas of Central Celebes think that See A. C. Kruyt, "De Rijstmoeder
the soul of the rice is embodied in a in den Indischen Archipel," p. 374
pretty little blue bird, which builds its (see the full reference in the next
nest in the rice-field when the ears are note).
stuff of
rice.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 183
man. So also the inhabitants of Halmahera call the soul-
stuff of things and plants giki and duhutu, but in men and
food they recognise a guruini. Of the Javanese, Malays,
Macassars, Buginese, and the inhabitants of the island of
Buru we know that they ascribe a sumatige, sumangat, or
sefiiangat to rice as well as to men. So it is with the
Toradjas of Central Celebes ; while they manifestly conceive
all things and plants as animated, they attribute a tanoana
or soul-stuff only to men, animals, and rice. It need hardly
be said that this custom originates in the very high value
that is set on rice." ^
Believing the rice to be animated by a soul like that Rice
of a man, the Indonesians naturally treat it with the j^y ^^^^ ^n-
deference and the consideration which they shew to their donesians
fellows. Thus they behave towards the rice in bloom as ^^ere a
they behave towards a pregnant woman ; they abstain from woman,
firing guns or making loud noises in the field, lest they
should so frighten the soul of the rice that it would mis-
carry and bear no grain ; and for the same reason they will
not talk of corpses or demons in the rice-fields. Moreover,
they feed the blooming rice with foods of various kinds
which are believed to be wholesome for women with child ;
but when the rice-ears are just beginning to form, they are
looked upon as infants, and women go through the fields
feeding them with rice-pap as if they were human babes.^
In such natural and obvious comparisons of the breeding
plant to a breeding woman, and of the young grain to a
young child, is to be sought the origin of the kindred Greek
1 A. C. Kruyt, " De Rijstmoeder in stuff " rather than of " a soul," because,
den Indischen Archipel," Verslagen en according to him, in living beings the
Mededeelii7gende7-koninklijke Akademie animating principle is conceived, not
van iVetensc happen, Afdeeling Letter- as a tiny being confined to a single
kunde, Vierde Reeks, v. part 4 (Am- part of the body, but as a sort of fluid
sterdam, 1903), pp. 361 sq. This or ether diffused through every part of
essay (pp. 361-41 1 ) contains a valuable the body. See his work, Het Atii-
collection of facts relating to what the misine in den Indischen Archipel (The
writer calls the Rice-mother in the Hague, 1906), pp. I sqq. In the
East Indies. But it is to be observed latter work (pp. 145-150) the writer
that while all the Indonesian peoples gives a more summary account of the
seem to treat a certain portion of the Indonesian theory of the rice-soul,
rice at harvest with superstitious respect ^ See The Magic Art and the Evolu-
and ceremony, only a part of them tion of Kings , \\. 28 j-^. ; A. C. Kru\t,
actually call it "the Rice-mother." " De Rijstmoeder," ^/. r/A pp. 363 5^y.,
Mr. Kruyt prefers to speak of "soul- 31 o sqq.
1 84 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
conception of the Corn -mother and the Corn -daughter,
Demeter and Persephone, and we need not go further afield
to search for it in a primitive division of labour between the
sexes.^ But if the timorous feminine soul of the rice can be
frightened into a miscarriage even by loud noises, it is easy
to imagine what her feelings must be at harvest, when
people are under the sad necessity of cutting down the rice
with the knife. At so critical a season every precaution
must be used to render the necessary surgical operation of
reaping as inconspicuous and as painless as possible. For
that reason, as we have seen,^ the reaping of the seed-rice is
done with knives of a peculiar pattern, such that the blades
are hidden in the reapers' hands and do not frighten the rice-
spirit till the very last moment, when her head is swept off
almost before she is aware ; and from a like delicate motive
the reapers at work in the fields employ a special form of
speech, which the rice-spirit cannot be expected to under-
stand, so that she has no warning or inkling of what is
going forward till the heads of rice are safely deposited in
the basket.^
The Among the Indonesian peoples who thus personify the
^f^Borneo ^^^^ ^^ "^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ Kayaus or Bahaus of Central Borneo as
their treat- typical. As we have already seen, they are essentially an
thrsoui of agricultural people devoted to the cultivation of rice, which
the rice. furnishcs their staple food ; their religion is deeply coloured
by this main occupation of their lives, and it presents many
analogies to the Eleusinian worship of the corn-goddesses
Demeter and Persephone.^ And just as the Greeks regarded
corn as a gift of the goddess Demeter, so the Kayans
believe that rice, maize, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and all the
other products of the earth which they cultivate, were
originally created for their benefit by the spirits.^
instru- In order to secure and detain the volatile soul of the
^jy jjjg rice the Kayans resort to a number of devices. Among the
Kayans for instruments employed for this purpose are a miniature
pose of ladder, a spatula, and a basket containing hooks, thorns, and
1 See above, pp. 113 sqq. Rijstmoeder," op. cit. p. 372,
2 See above, p. 181. * See above, pp. 92 sqq.
3 See Taboo and the Perils of the " A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Qtier diirch
Soul, pp. 411 sq. ; A. C. Kruyt, " De Borneo ["Le^ydtn, 1904-1907),!. 157 J^.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 185
cords. With the spatula the priestess strokes the soul of catching
the rice down the little ladder into the basket, where it is ^"^1 detain-
ing the
naturally held fast by the hooks, the thorn, and the cord ; soul of
and having thus captured and imprisoned the soul she *^^ ""^^
conveys it into the rice-granary. Sometimes a bamboo box
and a net are used for the same purpose. And in order to
ensure a good harvest for the following year it is necessary
not only to detain the soul of all the grains of rice which
are safely stored in the granary, but also to attract and
recover the soul of all the rice that has been lost through
falling to the earth or being eaten by deer, apes, and pigs.
For this purpose instruments of various sorts have been
invented by the priests. One, for example, is a bamboo
vessel provided with four hooks made from the wood of a
fruit-tree, by means of which the absent rice-soul may be
hooked and drawn back into the vessel, which is then hung
up in the house. Sometimes two hands carved out of the
wood of a fruit-tree are used for the same purpose. And Cere-
every time that a Kayan housewife fetches rice from the performed
granary for the use of her household, she must propitiate by Kayan
the souls of the rice in the granary, lest they should be at fetching
angry at being robbed of their substance. To keep them "'^^ f™™
. ^ ■' ^ . ^ the barn.
in good humour a bundle of shavings of a fruit-tree and
a little basket are always hung in the granary. An &^^
and a small vessel containing the juice of sugar-cane are
attached as offerings to the bundle of shavings, and the
basket contains a sacred mat, which is used at fetching the
rice. When the housewife comes to fetch rice from the
granary, she pours juice of the sugar-cane on the &%^, takes
the sacred mat from the basket, spreads it on the ground,
lays a stalk of rice on it, and explains to the souls of the
rice the object of her coming. Then she kneels before the
mat, mutters some prayers or spells, eats a single grain from
the rice-stalk, and having restored the various objects to
their proper place, departs from the granary with the
requisite amount of rice, satisfied that she has discharged
her religious duty to the spirits of the rice. At harvest the
spirits of the rice are propitiated with offerings of food and
water, which are carried by children to the rice-fields. At
evening the first rice-stalks which have been cut are solemnly
i86 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
brought home in a consecrated basket to the beating of a
gong, and all cats and dogs are driven from the house before
the basket with its precious contents is brought in.^
Mas- Among the Kayans of the Mahakam river in Central
querade Bomeo the sowing of the rice is immediately preceded by a
performed ° ...
by the performance of masked men, which is intended to attract the
befoTe"^ soul or rather souls of the rice and so to make sure that the
sowing for harvest will be a good one. The performers represent
of'attr'act-^ Spirits ; for, believing that spirits are mightier than men,
ing the the Kayans imagine that they can acquire and exert super-
the rice. human power by imitating the form and actions of spirits.^
To support their assumed character they wear grotesque masks
with goggle eyes, great teeth, huge ears, and beards of white
goat's hair, while their bodies are so thickly wrapt up in
shredded banana-leaves that to the spectator they present
the appearance of unwieldy masses of green foliage. The
leader of the band carries a long wooden hook or rather
crook, the shaft of which is partly whittled into loose
fluttering shavings. These disguises they don at a
little distance from the village, then dropping down the
river in boats they land and march in procession to an open
space among the houses, where the people, dressed out in all
their finery, are waiting to witness the performance. Here
the maskers range themselves in a circle and dance for some
time under the burning rays of the midday sun, waving their
arms, shaking and turning their heads, and executing a
variety of steps to the sound of a gong, which is beaten
according to a rigidly prescribed rhythm. After the dance
they form a line, one behind the other, to fetch the vagrant
soul of the rice from far countries. At the head of the
procession marches the leader holding high his crook and
behind him follow all the other masked men in their leafy
costume, each holding his fellow by the hand. As he
strides along, the leader makes a motion with his crook
as if he were hooking something and drawing it to himself,
and the gesture is imitated by all his followers. What
^ A. W. Nieuwenhuis, op. at. i. the masked dances and pantomimes of
I18-121. Compare id.. In Centraal many savage tribes. If that is so, it
Borneo (Leyden, 1900), i. 154 sqq. shews how deeply the principle of
imitative m.igic has influenced savage
■■* A similar belief probably explains religion.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 187
he is thus catching are the souls of the rice, which
sometimes wander far away, and by drawing them home
to the village he is believed to ensure that the seed of
the rice which is about to be sown will produce a plentiful
harvest. As the spirits are thought not to possess the
power of speech, the actors who personate them may not
utter a word, else they would run the risk of falling down
dead. The great field of the chief is sown by repre-
sentatives of all the families, both free and slaves, on the
day after the masquerade. On the same day the free
families sacrifice on their fields and begin their sowing on
one or other of the following days. Every family sets up
in its field a sacrificial stage or altar, with which the sowers
must remain in connexion during the time of sowing.
Therefore no stranger may pass between them and the
stage ; indeed the Kayans are not allowed to have anything
to do with strangers in the fields ; above all they may not
speak with them. If such a thing should accidentally happen,
the sowing must cease for that day. At the sowing festival,
but at no other time, Kayan men of the Mahakam river, like
their brethren of the Mendalam river, amuse themselves
with spinning tops. For nine days before the masquerade
takes place the people are bound to observe certain taboos :
no stranger may enter the village : no villager may pass the
night out of his own house : they may not hunt, nor pluck
fruits, nor fish with the casting-net or the drag-net.^ In this
tribe the proper day for sowing is officially determined by
a priest from an observation of the sun setting behind the
hills in a line with two stones which the priest has set up,
one behind the other. However, the official day often does
not coincide with the actual day of sowing.^
The masquerade thus performed by the Kayans of the Compari-
Mahakum river before sowing the rice is an instructive Kayan
example of a religious or rather magical drama acted for masquer-
1 r ■ , A u -^ ade with
the express purpose of ensurmg a good crop. As sucn it the
may be compared to the drama of Demeter and Persephone, Eieusiman
drama.
' A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch observed at the sowing season by the
Borneo, i. 322-330. Compare id.. In Kayans of the Mendalam river, see
Centraal Borneo, i. 185 sq. As to the above, pp. 94 sqq.
masquerades performed and the taboos ^ a. W. Nieuwenhuis,^/. cit. i. 317.
i88 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
the Corn-mother and the Corn-maiden, which was annually
played at the Eleusinian mysteries shortly before the
autumnal sowing of the corn. If my interpretation of these
mysteries is correct, the intention of the Greek and of the
Kayan drama was one and the same.
Securing At harvest the Dyaks of Northern Borneo have a special
the soul of fg^g^ j-j-jg object of which is " to secure the soul of the rice,
the nee ' -" '
among the which if not SO detained, the produce of their farms would
Northern Speedily rot and decay. At sowing time, a little of the
Borneo. principle of life of the rice, which at every harvest is secured
by their priests, is planted with their other seeds, and is thus
propagated and communicated," The mode of securing the
soul of the rice varies in different tribes. In the Quop district
the ceremony is performed by the chief priest alone, first in the
long broad verandah of the common house and afterwards
in each separate family apartment. As a preparation for
the ceremony a bamboo altar, decorated with green boughs
and red and white streamers, is erected in the verandah,
and presents a very gay appearance. Here the people, old
and young, assemble, the priestesses dressed in gorgeous
array and the elder men wearing bright-coloured jackets and
trousers of purple, yellow, or scarlet hue, while the young
men and lads beat gongs and drums. When the priest,
with a bundle of charms in either hand, is observed to be
gazing earnestly in the air at something invisible to common
eyes, the band strikes up with redoubled energy, and the
elderly men in the gay breeches begin to shriek and revolve
round the altar in the dance. Suddenly the priest starts
up and makes a rush at the invisible object ; men run to
him with white cloths, and as he shakes his charms over the
cloths a few grains of rice fall into them. These grains are
the soul of the rice ; they are carefully folded up in the
cloths and laid at the foot of the altar. The same perform-
ance is afterwards repeated in every family apartment. In
some tribes the soul of the rice is secured at midnight. Out-
side the village a lofty altar is erected in an open space
surrounded by the stately forms of the tropical palms.
Huge bonfires cast a ruddy glow over the scene and light
up the dusky but picturesque forms of the Dyaks as they
move in slow and solemn dance round the altar, some
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 189
bearing lighted tapers in their hands, others brass salvers
with offerings of rice, others covered baskets, of which the
contents are hidden from all but the initiated. The corner-
posts of the altar are lofty bamboos, whose leafy tops are
yet green and rustle in the wind ; and from one of them
a long narrow streamer of white cloth hangs down. Suddenly
elders and priests rush at this streamer, seize the end of it,
and amid the crashing music of drums and gongs and the
yells of the spectators begin dancing and swaying themselves
backwards and forwards, and to and fro. A priest or elder
mounts the altar amid the shouts of the bystanders and
shakes the tall bamboos violently ; and in the midst of all
this excitement and hubbub small stones, bunches of hair,
and grains of rice fall at the feet of the dancers, and are
carefully picked up by watchful attendants. These grains
are the soul of the rice. The ceremony ends with several
of the oldest priestesses falling, or pretending to fall, sense-
less to the ground, where, till they come to themselves, their
heads are supported and their faces fanned by their younger
colleagues. At the end of the harvest, when the year's crop
has been garnered, another feast is held. A pig and fowls
are killed, and for four days gongs are beaten and dancing
kept up. For eight days the village is tabooed and no
stranger may enter it. At this festival the ceremony of
catching the soul of the rice is repeated to prevent the crop
from rotting ; and the soul so obtained is mixed with the
seed-rice of the next year.^
The same need of securing the soul of the rice, if the Recalling
crop is to thrive, is keenly felt by the Karens of Burma, ^j^^ ^°g °
When a rice-field does not flourish, they suppose that the among the
soul (kelah) of the rice is in some way detained from the rice. Burma.
If the soul cannot be called back, the crop will fail. The
following formula is used in recalling the kelah (soul) of the
rice : " O come, ncQ-kelah, come ! Come to the field. Come
to the rice. With seed of each gender, come. Come from
the river Kho, come from the river Kaw ; from the place
where they meet, come. Come from the West, come from
^ Spenser St. John, Life hi the quoted in H. Ling Roth's Natives of
Forests of the Far East' (London, Sarawak and British North Borneo
1863), i. 187, 192 sqq. ; W. Chalmers, (London, 1S96), i. 412-414.
igo
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
Securing
the soul of
the rice
in various
parts of
Burma.
the East. From the throat of the bird, from the maw of
the ape, from the throat of the elephant. Come from the
sources of rivers and their mouths. Come from the country
of the Shan and Burman. From the distant kingdoms come.
From all granaries come. O x\ce.-kelah, come to the rice." ^
Among the Taungthu of Upper Burma it is customary,
when all the rice-fields have been reaped, to make a trail of
unhusked rice (paddy) and husks all the way from the fields
to the farm-house in order to guide the spirit or butterfly,
as they call it, of the rice home to the granary. Care is
taken that there should be no break in the trail, and the
butterfly of the rice is invited with loud cries to come to the
house. Were the spirit of the rice not secured in this
manner, next year's harvest would be bad.^ Similarly among
the Cherokee Indians of North America " ca,re was always
taken to keep a clean trail from the field to the house, so
that the corn might be encouraged to stay at home and not
go wandering elsewhere," and " seven ears from the last
year's crop were always put carefully aside, in order to
attract the corn, until the new crop was ripened." ^ In Hsa
Mong Hkam, a native state of Upper Burma, when two men
work rice-fields in partnership, they take particular care as
to the division of the grain between them. Each partner
has a basket made, of which both top and bottom are
carefully closed with wood to prevent the butterfly spirit of
the rice from escaping ; for if it were to flutter away, the next
year's crop would be but poor.* Among the Takings of
Lower Burma " the last sheaf is larger than the rest ; it is
brought home separately, usually if not invariably on the
morning after the remainder of the harvest has been carted
to the threshing-floor. The cultivators drive out in their
bullock-cart, taking with them a woman's comb, a looking-
glass, and a woman's skirt. The sheaf is dressed in the
skirt, and apparently the form is gone through of presenting
1 Rev. E. B. Cross, "On the Karens,"
Journal of the American Oriental
Society, iv. (1854) p. 309.
2 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P.
Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma
and of the Shan States (Rangoon,
1900-1901), Part i. vol. i. p. 559.
^ J. Mooney, " Myths of the
Cherokee," Nineteenth Annual Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
Part i. (Washington, 1900) p. 423.
Compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second
Edition, pp. 296 sq.
* (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardi-
man, op. cit. Part ii. vol. i. p. 172.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 191
it with the glass and comb. It is then brought home in
triumph, the people decking the cart with their silk kerchiefs,
and cheering and singing the whole way. On their arrival
home they celebrate the occasion with a feast. Strictly
speaking the sheaf should be kept apart from the rest of the
harvest ; owing, however, to the high price of paddy it often
finds its way to the threshing-floor. Even when this is not
the case it is rarely tended so carefully as it is said to have
been in former days, and if not threshed with the remaining
crop is apt to be eaten by the cattle. So far as I could
ascertain it had never been the custom to keep it throughout
the year ; but on the first ploughing of the ensuing season
there was some ceremony in connection with it. The name
of the sheaf was Bo?imagyi ; at first I was inclined to fancy
that this was a contraction of thelinbon ma gyi, ' the old
woman of the threshing-floor.' There are, however, various
reasons for discarding this derivation, and I am unable to
suggest any other." ^ In this custom the personification of
the last sheaf of rice as a woman comes out clearly in the
practice of dressing it up in female attire.
The Corn-mother of our European peasants has her The Rice-
match in the Rice-mother of the Minangkabauers of among the
Sumatra. The Minangkabauers definitely attribute a soul M'nang-
to rice, and will sometimes assert that rice pounded in the Sumatra.
usual way tastes better than rice ground in a mill, because
in the mill the body of the rice was so bruised and battered
that the soul has fled from it Like the Javanese they
think that the rice is under the special guardianship of a
female spirit called Saning Sari, who is conceived as so
closely knit up with the plant that the rice often goes by
her name, as with the Romans the corn might be called
Ceres, In particular Saning Sari is represented by certain
stalks or grains called indoea padi, that is, literally, " Mother
of Rice," a name that is often given to the guardian spirit
herself. This so-called Mother of Rice is the occasion of a
number of ceremonies observed at the planting and harvesting
of the rice as well as during its preservation in the barn.
1 From a letter written to me by Furnivall adds that in Upper Burma
Mr. J. S. Furnivall and dated Pegu the custom of the Bonmagyi sheaf is
Club, Rangoon, 6/6 [sic). Mr. unknown.
192 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
The Rice- When the seed of the rice is about to be sown in the
Miongthe r>ursery or bedding-out ground, where under the wet system
Minang- of Cultivation it is regularly allowed to sprout before being
Sumatra. ° transplanted to the fields, the best grains are picked out to
form the Rice-mother. These are then sown in the middle
of the bed, and the common seed is planted round about
them. The state of the Rice-mother is supposed to exert
the greatest influence on the growth of the rice ; if she
droops or pines away, the harvest will be bad in consequence.
The woman who sows the Rice-mother in the nursery lets
her hair hang loose and afterwards bathes, as a means of
ensuring an abundant harvest. When the time comes to
transplant the rice from the nursery to the field, the Rice-
mother receives a special place either in the middle or in a
corner of the field, and a prayer or charm is uttered as
follows : " Saning Sari, may a measure of rice come from a
stalk of rice and a basketful from a root ; may you be
frightened neither by lightning nor by passers-by ! Sunshine
make you glad ; with the storm may you be at peace ; and
may rain serve to wash your face ! " While the rice is
growing, the particular plant which was thus treated as the
Rice-mother is lost sight of; but before harvest another
Rice-mother is found. When the crop is ripe for cutting,
the oldest woman of the family or a sorcerer goes out to
look for her. The first stalks seen to bend under a passing
breeze are the Rice-mother, and they are tied together but
not cut until the first-fruits of the field have been carried
home to serve as a festal meal for the family and their
friends, nay even for the domestic animals ; since it is Saning
Sari's pleasure that the beasts also should partake of her
good gifts. After the meal has been eaten, the Rice-mother
is fetched home by persons in gay attire, who carry her very
carefully under an umbrella in a neatly worked bag to the
barn, where a place in the middle is assigned to her. Every
one believes that she takes care of the rice in the barn and
even multiplies it not uncommonly.^
1 J. L. van der Toorn, " Het 63-65. In the charm recited at sowing
animisme bij den Minangkabauer der the Rice -mother in the bed, I have
Padangsche Bovenlanden,"' Bijdragen translated the Dutch word stoel as
tot de Taal- Land- en Volkcnkunde van "root," but lam not sure of its precise
Neder!andsch Indie, xxxix. (1890) pp. meaning in this connexion. It is
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 193
When the Tomori of Central Celebes are about to plant The Rke-
the rice, they bury in the field some betel as an offering to '"°^'^^'"
, among the
the spirits who cause the rice to grow. Over the spot where Tomori of
the offering is buried a small floor of wood is laid, and the ^^ ^^'
family sits on it and consumes betel together as a sort of
silent prayer or charm to ensure the growth of the crop.
The rice that is planted round this spot is the last to be
reaped at harvest. At the commencement of the reaping
the stalks of this patch of rice are tied together into a sheaf,
which is called " the Mother of the Rice " {ineno pae), and
offerings in the shape of rice, fowl's liver, eggs, and other
things are laid down before it. When all the rest of the
rice in the field has been reaped, " the Mother of the Rice "
is cut down and carried with due honour to the rice-barn,
where it is laid on the floor, and all the other sheaves are
piled upon it. The Tomori, we are told, regard the Mother
of the Rice as a special offering made to the rice-spirit
Omonga, who dwells in the moon. If that spirit is not
treated with proper respect, for example if the people who
fetch rice from the barn are not decently clad, he is angry
and punishes the offenders by eating up twice as much rice
in the barn as they have taken out of it ; some people have
heard him smacking his lips in the barn, as he devoured the
rice. On the other hand the Toradjas of Central Celebes,
who also practise the custom of the Rice-mother at harvest,
regard her as the actual mother of the whole harvest, and
therefore keep her carefully, lest in her absence the garnered
store of rice should all melt away and disappear.^ Among Special
the Tomori, as among other Indonesian peoples, reapers at
work in the field make use of special words which differ among the
from the terms in ordinary use ; the reason for adopting this
peculiar form of speech at reaping appears to be, as I have
already pointed out, a fear of alarming the timid soul of the
rice by revealing the fate in store for it.^ To the same
doubtless identical with the English grafische aanteekeningen omtrent de
agricultural term " to stool," which is Toboengkoe en de Tomori," Mede-
said of a number of stalks sprouting deelingen van wege het Nederlandsihe
from a single seed, as I learn from Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) pp.
my friend Professor W. Somerville of 227, 230 sq.
Oxford. 2 See Taboo and the Perils of the
' A. C. Kruijt, " Eenige ethno- Soul, pp. 411 sq.
PT. V. VOL. I O
words used
at reaping
among tl
Tomori.
194 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
motive is perhaps to be ascribed the practice observed
by the Tomori of asking each other riddles at harvest.^
Riddles Similarly among the Alfoors or Toradjas of Poso, in Central
and stones Celebes, while the people are watching the crops in the fields
in con- ' *■ *• . , ° *■ ^
nexionwith they amuse themselves with asking each other riddles and
the nee. telling stories, and when any one guesses a riddle aright, the
whole company cries out, " Let our rice come up, let fat ears
come up both in the lowlands and on the heights." But all
the time between harvest and the laying out of new fields
the asking of riddles and the telling of stories is strictly
forbidden.^ Thus among these people it seems that the
asking of riddles is for some reason regarded as a charm
which may make or mar the crops.
The Rice- Among some of the Toradjas of Celebes the ceremony
mother ^f cutting and bringing home the Mother of the Rice
among the * o o
Toradjas is observed as follows. When the crop is ripe in the
of Celebes, f^gj^g^ ^j^g Mother of the Rice {Anrong pare) must be
fetched before the rest of the harvest is reaped. The
ceremony is performed on a lucky day by a woman, who
knows the rites. For three days previously she observes
certain precautions to prevent the soul {soemangdna dse) of
the rice from escaping out of the field, as it might be apt to
do, if it got wind that the reapers with their cruel knives
were so soon to crop the ripe -ears. With this view she ties
up a handful of standing stalks of the rice into a bunch in
each corner of the field, while she recites an invocation
to the spirits of the rice, bidding them gather in the field
from the four quarters of the heaven. As a further pre-
caution she stops the sluices, lest with the outrush of the
water from the rice-field the sly soul of the rice should make
good its escape. And she ties knots in the leaves of the
rice-plants, all to hinder the soul of the rice from running
away. This she does in the afternoon of three successive
days. On the morning of the fourth day she comes again
to the field, sits down in a corner of it, and kisses the rice
three times, again inviting the souls of the rice to come
thither and assuring them of her affection and care. Then
1 A. C. Kruijt, op. at. p. 228. elijk leven van den Poso - Alfoer,"
Alededeelitigen van wege het Ah'deriand-
2 A. C. Kruijt, " Een en ander sche ZendeHnggcnootschap,-yx\\yi.{\Z()^)
aangaande het geestelijk en maatschap- pp. 142 sq.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 195
she cuts the bunch of rice-stalks which she had tied together
on one of the previous days. The stalks in the bunch must
be nine in number, and their leaves must be cut with them,
not thrown away. As she cuts, she may not look about
her, nor cry out, nor speak to any one, nor be spoken to ;
but she says to the rice, " The prophet reaps you. I take
you, but you diminish not ; I hold you in my hand and you
increase. You are the links of my soul, the support of my
body, my blessing, my salvation. There is no God but
God." Then she passes to another corner of the field to
cut the bunch of standing rice in it with the same ceremony ;
but before coming to it she stops half way to pluck another
bunch of five stalks in like manner. Thus from the four
sides of the field she collects in all fifty-six stalks of rice,
which together make up the Mother of the Rice {anrong
pare). Then in a corner of the field she makes a little
stage and lays the Mother of the Rice on it, with the ears
turned towards the standing rice and the cut stalks
towards the dyke which encloses the field. After that she
binds the fifty-six stalks of the Rice-mother into a sheaf
with the bark of a particular kind of tree. As she does so,
she says, " The prophet binds you into a sheaf ; the angel
increases you ; the awdlli cares for you. We loved and
cared for each other." Then, after anointing the sheaf and
fumigating it with incense, she lays it on the little stage.
On this stage she had previously placed several kinds of
rice, betel, one or more eggs, sweetmeats, and young coco-
nuts, all as offerings to the Mother of the Rice, who, if she
did not receive these attentions, would be offended and visit
people with sickness or even vanish away altogether. Some-
times on large farms a fowl is killed and its blood deposited
in the half of a coco-nut on the stage. The standing rice
round about the stage is the last of the whole field to be
reaped. When it has been cut, it is bound up with the
Mother of the Rice into a single sheaf and carried home.
Any body may carry the sheaf, but in doing so he or she
must take care not to let it fall, or the Rice-mother would be
angry and might disappear.^
^ G. Maan, " Eenige mededeelingen Toerateya ten opzichte van den
omtrent de zeden en gewoonten der rijstbouw," Tijdschrift voor Indische
196
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
woman
among the
Bataks of
Sumatra.
The rice Among the Battas or Bataks of Sumatra the rice appears
personified ^^ y^^ personified as a young unmarried woman rather than
as a mother. On the first day of reaping the crop only a
few ears of rice are plucked and made up into a little sheaf.
After that the reaping may begin, and while it is going
forward offerings of rice and betel are presented in the
middle of the field to the spirit of the rice, who is personified
under the name of Miss Dajang. The offering is accom-
panied by a common meal shared by the reapers. When
all the rice has been reaped, threshed and garnered, the little
sheaf which was first cut is brought in and laid on the top
of the heap in the granary, together with an &^^ or a stone,
which is supposed to watch over the rice.^ Though we are
not told, we may assume that the personified spirit of the
rice is supposed to be present in the first sheaf cut and in
that form to keep guard over the rice in the granary.
Another writer, who has independently described the customs
of the Karo-Bataks at the rice-harvest, tells us that the largest
sheaf, which is usually the one first made up, is regarded as
the seat of the rice-soul and is treated exactly like a person ;
at the trampling of the paddy to separate the grain from
the husks the sheaf in question is specially entrusted to
a girl who has a lucky name, and whose parents are both
alive.^
Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xlvi.
(1903) pp. 330-337. The writer dates
his article from Tanneteya (in Celebes?),
but otherwise gives no indication of the
geographical position of the people he
describes. A similar omission is com-
mon with Dutch writers on the
geography and ethnology of the East
Indies, who too often appear to assume
that the uncouth names of these bar-
barous tribes and obscure hamlets are as
familiar to European readers as Amster-
dam or the Hague. The Toerateyas
whose customs Mr. Maan describes in
this article are the inland inhabitants
of Celebes. Their name Toerateyas or
Toradjas signifies simply "inlanders"
and is applied to them by their neigh-
bours who live nearer the sea ; it is
not a name used by the people them-
selves. The Toradjas include many
tribes and the particular tribe whose
usages in regard to the Rice-mother
are described in the text is probably
not one of those whose customs and
beliefs have been described by Mr. A.
C. Kruijt in many valuable papers.
See above, p. 183 note^, and The Magic
Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 109
note'.
' M. Joustra, " Het leven, de zeden
en gewoonten der Bataks," Mededee-
lingen van wage het Nede?-landsche
Zendelinggenootschap, xlvi. (1902) pp.
425 sq.
2 J. H. Neumann, " lets over den
landbouw bij de Karo-Bataks," ]\Iede-
deelingen van wege het Nederlandsche
Zendelinggenootschap, xlvi. {1902) pp.
380 sq. As to the employment in
ritual of young people whose parents
are both alive, see Adonis, Attis, Osiris,
Second Edition, pp. 413 sqq.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 197
In Mandeling, a district of Sumatra, contrary to what The King
seems to be the usual practice, the spirit of the rice is personi- ^j^g^^
fied as a male instead of as a female and is called the Rajah Mandeling.
or King of the Rice. He is supposed to be immanent in
certain rice-plants, which are recognised by their peculiar
formation, such as a concealment of the ears in the sheath,
an unusual arrangement of the leaves, or a stunted growth.
When one or more such plants have been discovered in the
field, they are sprinkled with lime-juice, and the spirits are
invoked by name and informed that they are expected at
home and that all is ready for their reception. Then the
King of the Rice is plucked with the hand and seven
neighbouring rice-stalks cut with a knife. He and his seven
companions are then carefully brought home ; the bearer
may not speak a word, and the children in the house may
make no noise till the King of the Rice has been safely
lodged in the granary and tethered, for greater security, with
a grass rope to one of the posts. As soon as that is done,
the doors are shut to prevent the spirits of the rice from
escaping. The person who fetches the King of the Rice
from the field should prepare himself for the important duty
by eating a hearty meal, for it would be an omen of a bad
harvest if he presented himself before the King of the
Rice with an empty stomach. For the same reason the
sower of rice should sow the seed on a full stomach, in
order that the ears which spring from the seed may be full
also.^
Again, just as in Scotland the old and the young spirit The Rice-
of the corn are represented as an Old Wife {Cailleacli) and [he'Rke"
a Maiden respectively, so in the Malay Peninsula we find child at
both the Rice-mother and her child represented by different jjjg Malay
sheaves or bundles of ears on the harvest-field. The follow- Peninsula.
ing directions for obtaining both are translated from a native
Malay work on the cultivation of rice : " When the rice is
1 A. L. van Hasselt, " Nota, betref- Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, Tweede
fende de rijstcultuur in de Residentie Serie, xiv. (1897) pp. 290 sq. As to
Tapanoeli," Tijdschrift voor Indischc the rule of sowing seed on a full
Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxvi. stomach, which is a simple case of
(1893) PP- 526-529; Th. A. L. homoeopathic or imitative magic, see
Heyting, " Beschrijving der Onderaf- further The Magic Art and the Evoln-
deeling Groot- mandeling en Batang- tion of Kings, i. 136.
natal," Tijdschrijtvan hetNederlandsch
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
mother and
the Rice-
child at
harvest in
the Malay
Peninsula.
The Rice- ripe all over, one must first take the ' soul ' out of all the
plots of one's field. You choose the spot where the rice is
best and where it is ' female ' (that is to say, where the
bunch of stalks is big) and where there are seven joints in
the stalk. You begin with a bunch of this kind and clip
seven stems to be the ' soul of the rice ' ; and then you clip
yet another handful to be the ' mother-seed ' for the following
year. The ' soul ' is wrapped in a white cloth tied with a
cord of terap bark, and made into the shape of a little child
in swaddling clothes, and put into the small basket. The
' mother -seed ' is put into another basket, and both are
fumigated with benzoin, and then the two baskets are
piled the one on the other and taken home, and put into
the kepuk (the receptacle in which rice is stored)." ^ The
ceremony of cutting and bringing home the Soul of the Rice
was witnessed by Mr. W. W. Skeat at Chodoi in Selangor
on the twenty-eighth of January 1897. The particular
bunch or sheaf which was to serve as the Mother of the
Rice -soul had previously been sought and identified by
means of the markings or shape of the ears. From this
sheaf an aged sorceress, with much solemnity, cut a little
bundle of seven ears, anointed them with oil, tied them
round with parti -coloured thread, fumigated them with
incense, and having wrapt them in a white cloth deposited
them in a little oval-shaped basket. These seven ears were
the infant Soul of the Rice and the little basket was its
cradle. It was carried home to the farmer's house by
another woman, who held up an umbrella to screen the
tender infant from the hot rays of the sun. Arrived at the
house the Rice-child was welcomed by the women of the
family, and laid, cradle and all, on a new sleeping-mat with
pillows at the head. After that the farmer's wife was
instructed to observe certain rules of taboo for three days,
the rules being in many respects identical with those which
have to be observed for three days after the birth of a real
child. For example, perfect quiet must be observed, as in
a house where a baby has just been born ; a light was
placed near the head of the Rice-child's bed and might not
go out at night, while the fire on the hearth had to be kept
^ W. W. Skeat, Alalay ^/a^c (London, 1900), pp. 225 sq.
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 199
Up both day and night till the three days were over ; hair
might not be cut ; and money, rice, salt, oil, and so forth
were forbidden to go out of the house, though of course
these valuable articles were quite free to come in. Some-
thing of the same tender care which is thus bestowed on
the newly-born Rice-child is naturally extended also to its
parent, the sheaf from whose body it w^as taken. This
sheaf, which remains standing in the field after the Rice-soul
has been carried home and put to bed, is treated as a newly-
made mother ; that is to say, young shoots of trees are
pounded together and scattered broadcast every evening for
three successive days, and when the three days are up you
take the pulp of a coco-nut and what are called " goat-
flowers," mix them up, eat them with a little sugar, and spit
some of the mixture out among the rice. So after a real
birth the young shoots of the jack-fruit, the rose-apple, certain
kinds of banana, and the thin pulp of young coco-nuts are
mixed with dried fish, salt, acid, prawn-condiment, and the
like dainties to form a sort of salad, which is administered
to mother and child for three successive days. The last
sheaf is reaped by the farmer's wife, who carries it back to
the house, where it is threshed and mixed with the Rice-
soul. The farmer then takes the Rice-soul and its basket and
deposits it, together with the product of the last sheaf, in
the big circular rice-bin used by the Malays. Some grains
from the Rice-soul are mixed with the seed which is to be
sown in the following year.^ In this Rice-mother and Rice-
child of the Malay Peninsfila we may see the counterpart
and in a sense the prototype of the Demeter and Persephone
of ancient Greece.
Once more, the European custom of representing the The Rice-
corn-spirit in the double form of bride and bridegroom "" has the'^^j'^e^
its parallel in a ceremony observed at the rice-harvest in biide-
Java. Before the reapers begin to cut the rice, the priest or harvSt^in
sorcerer picks out a number of ears of rice, which are tied Java,
together, smeared with ointment, and adorned with flowers.
Thus decked out, the ears are called the padi-penganten, that
is, the Rice-bride and the Rice-bridegroom ; their wedding
feast is celebrated, and the cutting of the rice begins im-
1 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 235-249. - See above, pp. 163 sq.
THE CORN- MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
Another
account
of the
Javanese
custom.
mediately afterwards. Later on, when the rice is being got
in, a bridal chamber is partitioned off in the barn, and
furnished with a new mat, a lamp, and all kinds of toilet
articles. Sheaves of rice, to represent the wedding guests,
are placed beside the Rice-bride and the Rice-bridegroom.
Not till this has been done may the whole harvest be housed
in the barn. And for the first forty days after the rice has
been housed, no one may enter the barn, for fear of dis-
turbing the newly-wedded pair.^
Another account of the Javanese custom runs as
follows. When the rice at harvest is to be brought home,
two handfuls of common unhusked rice (paddy) are tied
together into a sheaf, and two handfuls of a special
kind of rice {kleefrijsf) are tied up into another sheaf;
then the two sheaves are fastened together in a bundle
which goes by the name of " the bridal pair " (^pen-
gantenan). The special rice is the bridegroom, the common
rice is the bride. At the barn " the bridal pair " is received
on a winnowing-fan by a wizard, who removes them from
the fan and lays them on the floor with a couch of kloewih
leaves under them " in order that the rice may increase," and
b?side them he places a kcmiri nut, tamarind pips, and a top
and string as playthings with which the young couple may
divert themselves. The bride is called Emboq Sri and the
bridegroom Sadana, and the wizard addresses them by name,
saying : " Emboq Sri and Sadana, I have now brought you
home and I have prepared a place for you. May you sleep
agreeably in this agreeable place ! Emboq Sri and Sadana,
you have been received by So-and-So (the owner), let So-
1 P. J. Veth, Java (Haarlem,
1875-1884), i. 524-526. The cere-
mony has also been described by Miss
Augusta de \^\i{Facts and Fancies about
Java, Singapore, 1898, pp. 229-241),
who lays stress on the extreme import-
ance of the rice-harvest for the Javanese.
The whole island of Java, she tells us,
"is one vast rice-field. Rice on the
swampy plains, rice on the risingground,
rice on the slopes, rice on the very
summits of the hills. From the sod
under one's feet to the verge of the
horizon, everything has one and the
same colour, the bluish -green of the
young, or the gold of the ripened rice.
The natives are all, without exception,
tillers of the soil, who reckon their lives
by seasons of planting and reaping,
whose happiness or misery is synony-
mous with the abundance or the dearth
of the precious grain. And the great
national feast is the harvest home, with
its crowning ceremony of the Wedding
of the Rice " (op. cit. pp. 229 sq. ). I have
to thank my friend Dr. A. C. Iladdon
for directing my attention to Miss de
Wit's book.
I
vr THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 201
and-So lead a life free from care. May Emboq Sri's luck
continue in this very agreeable place ! " ^
The sanne idea of the rice-spirit as a husband and wife The rice-
meets us also in the harvest customs of Bali and Lombok, f^"^^' ^,
' husband
two islands which lie immediately to the east of Java. " The and wife
inhabitants of Lombok," we are told, " think of the rice-plant Lonfbok""^
as animated by a soul. They regard it as one with a
divinity and treat it with the distinction and honour that are
shewn to a very important person. But as it is impossible
to treat all the rice-stalks in a field ceremoniously, the native,
feeling the need of a visible and tangible representative of
the rice-deity and taking a part for the whole, picks out
some stalks and conceives them as the visible abode of the
rice-soul, to which he can pay his homage and from which
he hopes to derive advantage. These few stalks, the fore-
most among their many peers, form what is called the nmt'n
pantun by the people of Bali and the inan pare by the
Sassaks " of Lombok.^ The name ina pare is sometimes
translated Rice-mother, but the more correct translation is
said to be " the principal rice." The stalks of which this
"principal rice" consists are the first nine shoots which the
husbandman himself takes with his own hands from the
nursery or bedding-out ground and plants at the upper end
of the rice-field beside the inlet of the irrigation water. They
are planted with great care in a definite order, one of them
in the middle and the other eight in a circle about it. When
the whole field has been planted, an offering, which usually
consists of rice in many forms, is made to " the principal
rice " {inan pare). When the rice-stalks begin to swell the
rice is said to be pregnant, and the " principal rice " is
treated with the delicate attentions which are paid to a
woman with child. Thus rice-pap and eggs are laid down
beside it, and sour fruits are often presented to it, because
pregnant women are believed to long for sour fruit. More-
1 A. C. Kruijt, " Gebruiken bij den /^^/^«j-(r/2fl/>/£«,Afdeeling Letterkunde,
rijstoogst in enkele streken op Oost- Vierde Reeks, v. part 4 (Amsterdam,
Java," Mededeelingen van wege het 1903), pp. 398 sqq.
Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, ^ J. C. van Eerde, "Gebruiken bij
xlvii. (1903) pp. 132-134. Compare den rijstbouw en rijstoogst op Lombok,"
id., " De rijst-moeder in den Indischen Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land-
Archipel," Verslagfn en Afededee- en Volkenhtnde, xlv. (1902) pp. 563-
lingen der koniiikl/Jke Akadeiiiie van 565 note.
202 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
The Rice- over the fertilisation of the rice by the irrigation water is
husband compared to the union of the goddess Batari Sri with her
and wife in husband Ida Batara (Vishnu), who is identified with the
Lombok. Aowing water. Some people sprinkle the pregnant rice
with water in which cooling drugs have been infused or with
water which has stood on a holy grave, in order that the
ears may fill out well. When the time of harvest has come,
the owner of the field himself makes a beginning by cutting
" the principal rice " {inan pare or ninin pantun) with his
own hands and binding it into two sheaves, each com-
posed of one hundred and eight stalks with their leaves
attached to them. One of the sheaves represents a man
and the other a woman, and they are called " husband and
wife " {istri kakung). The male sheaf is wound about with
thread so that none of the leaves are visible, whereas the
female sheaf has its leaves bent over and tied so as to
resemble the roll of a woman's hair. Sometimes, for further
distinction, a necklace of rice-straw is tied round the female
sheaf. The two sheaves are then fastened together and tied
to a branch of a tree, which is stuck in the ground at the
inlet of the irrigation water. There they remain while all
the rest of the rice is being reaped. Sometimes, instead of
being tied to a bough, they are laid on a little bamboo altar.
The reapers at their work take great care to let no grains of
rice fall on the ground, otherwise the Rice-goddess would
grieve and weep at being parted from her sisters, who are
carried to the barn. If any portion of the field remains
unreaped at nightfall, the reapers make loops in the leaves
of some of the standing stalks to prevent the evil spirits
from proceeding with the harvest during the hours of dark-
ness, or, according to another account, lest the Rice-goddess
should go astray. When the rice is brought home from
the field, the two sheaves representing the husband and
wife are carried by a woman on her head, and are the last
of all to be deposited in the barn. There they are laid to
rest on a small erection or on a cushion of rice-straw
along with three lumps of nasi, which are regarded
as the attendants or watchers of the bridal pair. The
whole arrangement, we are informed, has for its object
to induce the rice to increase and multiply in the granary,
VI THE RICE-MOTHER IN THE EAST INDIES 203
SO that the owner may get more out of it than he
put in. Hence when the people of Bali bring the two
sheaves, the husband and wife, into the barn, they say,
" Increase ye and multiply without ceasing." When a
woman fetches rice from the granary for the use of her
household, she has to observe a number of rules, all of
which are clearly dictated by respect for the spirit of the
rice. She should not enter the barn in the dark or at noon,
perhaps because the spirit may then be supposed to be
sleeping. She must enter with her right foot first. She
must be decently clad with her breasts covered. She must
not chew betel, and she would do well to rinse her mouth
before repairing to the barn, just as she would do if she
waited on a person of distinction or on a divinity. No sick
or menstruous woman may enter the barn, and there must
be no talking in it, just as there must be no talking when
shelled rice is being scooped up. When all the rice in the
barn has been used up, the two sheaves representing the hus-
band and wife remain in the empty building till they have
gradually disappeared or been devoured by mice. The
pinch of hunger sometimes drives individuals to eat up the
rice of these two sheaves, but the wretches who do so are
viewed with disgust by their fellows and branded as pigs
and dogs. Nobody would ever sell these holy sheaves with
the rest of their profane brethren.^
The same notion of the propagation of the rice by a The Father
male and female power finds expression amongst the Szis of ^jot^ej.
Upper Burma. When the paddy, that is, the rice with the of the Rice
husks still on it, has been dried and piled in a heap for gzis of
threshing, all the friends of the household are invited to the Burma,
threshing-floor, and food and drink are brought out. The
heap of paddy is divided and one half spread out for
threshing, while the other half is left piled up. On the pile
food and spirits are set, and one of the elders, addressing
"the father and mother of the paddy-plant," prays for
plenteous harvests in future, and begs that the seed may
bear many fold. Then the whole party eat, drink, and
make merry. This ceremony at the threshing-floor is the
^ J. C. van Eerde, " Gebruiken bij Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land-
den rijstbouw en rijstoogst opLombok," en Volkenkimde, xlv.(i902)pp. 563-573.
204
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
only occasion when these people invoke " the father and
mother of the paddy." ^
The spirit
of the corn
sometimes
thought to
be em-
bodied in
men or
women.
The Old
Woman
who Never
Dies, the
goddess of
the crops
among the
Mandans
and Min-
nitarees.
§ 5 . TJie Spu'it of the Corn embodied in Human Beings
Thus the theory which recognises in the European Corn-
mother, Corn-maiden, and so forth, the embodiment in
vegetable form of the animating spirit of the crops is amply
confirmed by the evidence of peoples in other parts of the
world, who, because they have lagged behind the European races
in mental development, retain for that very reason a keener
sense of the original motives for observing those rustic rites
which among ourselves have sunk to the level of meaningless
survivals. The reader may, however, remember that accord-
ing to Mannhardt, whose theory I am expounding, the spirit
of the corn manifests itself not merely in vegetable but also
in human form ; the person who cuts the last sheaf or gives
the last stroke at threshing passes for a temporary embodi-
ment of the corn-spirit, just as much as the bunch of corn
which he reaps or threshes. Now in the parallels which have
been hitherto adduced from the customs of peoples outside
Europe the spirit of the crops appears only in vegetable
form. It remains, therefore, to prove that other races be-
sides our European peasantry have conceived the spirit of
the crops as incorporate in or represented by living men
and women. Such a proof, I may remind the reader, is
germane to the theme of this book ; for the more instances
we discover of human beings representing in themselves
the life or animating spirit of plants, the less difficulty will
be felt at classing amongst them the King of the Wood at
Nemi.
The Mandans and Minnitarees of North America used
to hold a festival in spring which they called the corn-
medicine festival of the women. They thought that a certain
Old Woman who Never Dies made the crops to grow, and
that, living somewhere in the south, she sent the migratory
waterfowl in spring as her tokens and representatives. Each
sort of bird represented a special kind of crop cultivated by
1 (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. Hardi-
man, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the
Shan States, Part i. vol. i. (Rangoon,
1900) p. 426.
VI SPIRIT OF THE CORN IN HUMAN BEINGS 205
the Indians : the wild goose stood for the maize, the wild
swan for the gourds, and the wild duck for the beans. So
when the feathered messengers of the Old Woman began to
arrive in spring the Indians celebrated the corn -medicine
festival of the women. Scaffolds were set up, on which the
people hung dried meat and other things by way of offerings
to the Old Woman ; and on a certain day the old women of
the tribe, as representatives of the Old Woman who Never
Dies, assembled at the scaffolds each bearing in her hand an
ear of maize fastened to a stick. They first planted these
sticks in the ground, then danced round the scaffolds, and
finally took up the sticks again in their arms. Meanwhile
old men beat drums and shook rattles as a musical accom-
paniment to the performance of the old women. Further,
young women came and put dried flesh into the mouths of
the old women, for which they received in return a grain of
the consecrated maize to eat. Three or four grains of the
holy corn were also placed in the dishes of the young women,
to be afterwards carefully mixed with the seed-corn, which
they were supposed to fertilise. The dried flesh hung on
the scaffold belonged to the old women, because they repre-
sented the Old Woman who Never Dies. A similar corn-
medicine festival was held in autumn for the purpose of
attracting the herds of buffaloes and securing a supply of
meat. At that time every woman carried in her arms an
uprooted plant of maize. They gave the name of the Old
Woman who Never Dies both to the maize and to those
birds which they regarded as symbols of the fruits of the
earth, and they prayed to them in autumn saying, " Mother,
have pity on us ! send us not the bitter cold too soon, lest
we have not meat enough ! let not all the game depart, that
we may have something for the winter ! " In autumn, when
the birds were flying south, the Indians thought that they
were going home to the Old Woman and taking to her the
offerings that had been hung up on the scaffolds, especially
the dried meat, which she ate.^ Here then we have the
spirit or divinity of the corn conceived as an Old Woman
and represented in bodily form by old women, who in their
1 Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das iniidie Nord-America (Coblenz,
1839-1841), ii. 182 sq.
2o6
THE CORN-MOTHER JN MANY LANDS
Miami
myth of
the Corn-
spirit in
the form
of a
broken-
down
old man.
capacity of representatives receive some at least of the
offerings which are intended for her.
The Miamis, another tribe of North American Indians,
tell a tale in which the spirit of the corn figures as a broken-
down old man. They say that corn, that is, maize, first
grew in heaven, and that the Good Spirit commanded it to
go down and dwell with men on earth. At first it was
reluctant to do so, but the Good Spirit prevailed on it to go
by promising that men would treat it well in return for the
benefit they derived from it. " So corn came down from
heaven to benefit the Indian, and this is the reason why
they esteem it, and are bound to take good care of it, and to
nurture it, and not raise more than they actually require,
for their own consumption." But once a whole town of the
Miamis was severely punished for failing in respect for the
corn. They had raised a great crop and stored much of it
under ground, and much of it they packed for immediate
use in bags. But the corn v/as so plentiful that much of it
still remained on the stalks, and the young men grew reck-
less and played with the shelled cobs, throwing them at each
other, and at last they even broke the cobs from the growing
stalks and pelted each other with them too. But a judg-
ment soon followed on such wicked conduct. For when the
hunters went out to hunt, though the deer seemed to abound,
they could kill nothing. So the corn was gone and they
could get no meat, and the people were hungry. Well, one
of the hunters, roaming by himself in the woods to find
something to eat for his aged father, came upon a small
lodge in the wilderness where a decrepit old man was lying
with his back to the fire. Now the old man was no other
than the Spirit of the Corn. He said to the young hunter,
" My grandson, the Indians have afflicted me much, and
reduced me to the sad state in which you see me. In the
side of the lodge you will find a small kettle. Take it and
eat, and when you have satisfied your hunger, I will speak
to you." But the kettle was full of such fine sweet corn as
the hunter had never in his life seen before. When he had
eaten his fill, the old man resumed the thread of his dis-
course, saying, " Your people have wantonly abused and
reduced me to the state you now see me in : my back-bone
VI SPIRIT OF THE CORN IN HUMAN BEINGS 207
is broken in many places ; it was the foolish young men of
your town who did me this evil, for I am Mondamin, or
corn, that came down from heaven. In their play they
threw corn-cobs and corn-ears at one another, treating me
with contempt. I am the corn -spirit whom they have
injured. That is why you experience bad luck and famine.
I am the cause ; you feel my just resentment, therefore
your people are punished. Other Indians do not treat me
so. They respect me, and so it is well with them. Had
you no elders to check the youths at their wanton sport ?
You are an eye-witness of my sufferings. They are the
effect of what you did to my body." With that he groaned
and covered himself up. So the young hunter returned and
reported what he had seen and heard ; and since then the
Indians have been very careful not to play with corn in
the ear.^
In some parts of India the harvest -goddess Gauri is The
represented at once by an unmarried girl and by a bundle '^o^deg"
of wild balsam plants, which is made up into the figure of a Gauri re-
woman and dressed as such with mask, garments, and orna- by^a^gjri
ments. Both the human and the vegetable representative and a
of the goddess are worshipped, and the intention of the plants.
whole ceremony appears to be to ensure a good crop of
S 6. The Double Personificatio7i of the Corn as Mother
and Daughter
Compared with the Corn-mother of Germany and the Analogy of
harvest-Maiden of Scotland, the Demeter and Persephone and Per-
of Greece are late products of religious growth. Yet as sephone to
members of the Aryan family the Greeks must at one mother, the
time or another have observed harvest customs like those ^^a^'^y'^st-
maiden,
which are still practised by Celts, Teutons, and Slavs, and and similar
which, far beyond the limits of the Aryan world, have fife^^arvest
been practised by the Indians of Peru, the Dyaks of customs of
Borneo, and many other natives of the East Indies — a European
• H. R. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes in honour of Gauri and Ganesh," In-
of the United States, v. (Philadelphia, dian Antiqtiary, xxxv. (1906) p. 61.
1856) pp. 193-195. For details see The Magic Art arid the
- B. A. Gupte, "Harvest Festivals Evolution of Kings, ii. ']T sq.
2o8 THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
sufficient proof that the ideas on which these customs rest
are not confined to any one race, but naturally suggest them-
selves to all untutored peoples engaged in agriculture. It
The rustic is probable, therefore, that Demeter and Persephone, those
analogues g^^^-gjy ^nd beautiful figures of Greek mythology, grew out
and Perse- of the Same simple beliefs and practices which still prevail
P^^°"^' among our modern peasantry, and that they were represented
by rude dolls made out of the yellow sheaves on many a
harvest-field long before their breathing images were wrought
in bronze and marble by the master hands of Phidias and
Praxiteles. A reminiscence of that olden time — a scent, so
to say, of the harvest-field — lingered to the last in the title
of the Maiden {Kore) by which Persephone was commonly
known. Thus if the prototype of Demeter is the Corn-
mother of Germany, the prototype of Persephone is the
harvest-Maiden, which, autumn after autumn, is still made
from the last sheaf on the Braes of Balquhidder. Indeed, if
we knew more about the peasant-farmers of ancient Greece,
we should probably find that even in classical times they
continued annually to fashion their Corn-mothers (Demeters)
and Maidens (Persephones) out of the ripe corn on the
harvest-fields.^ But unfortunately the Demeter and Perse-
phone whom we know were the denizens of towns, the majestic
inhabitants of lordly temples ; it was for such divinities
alone that the refined writers of antiquity had eyes ; the
uncouth rites performed by rustics amongst the corn were
beneath their notice. Even if they noticed them, they
probably never dreamed of any connexion between the
puppet of corn-stalks on the sunny stubble-field and the
marble divinity in the shady coolness of the temple. Still
the writings even of these town-bred and cultured persons
afford us an occasional glimpse of a Demeter as rude as the
rudest that a remote German village can shew. Thus
the story that lasion begat a child Plutus (" wealth,"
" abundance ") by Demeter on a thrice-ploughed field,^ may
1 It is possible that the image of of the kind described in the text. The
Demeter with corn and poppies in her suggestion was made to me by my
hands, which Theocritus (vii. \^^ sqq.) learned and esteemed friend Dr. W.
describes as standing on a rustic thresh- H. D. Rouse.
ing-floor (see above, p. 47), may have ^ Homer, Odyssey, v. 125 sqq. ;
been a Corn-mother or a Corn-maiden Hesiod, Theog. 969 sqq.
VI THE CORN AS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER 209
be compared with the West Prussian custom of the mock
birth of a child on the harvest-field.^ In this Prussian
custom the pretended mother represents the Corn-mother
{ZjtniaiJiatka) ; the pretended child represents the Corn-
baby, and the whole ceremony is a charm to ensure a crop
next year.^ The custom and the legend alike point to an
older practice of performing, among the sprouting crops in
spring or the stubble in autumn, one of those real or mimic
acts of procreation by which, as we have seen, primitive
man often seeks to infuse his own vigorous life into the
languid or decaying energies of nature.^ Another glimpse
of the savage under the civilised Demeter will be afforded
farther on, when we come to deal with another aspect of
these agricultural divinities.
The reader may have observed that in modern folk- Why did
customs the corn-spirit is generally represented either by a p^rsonff^^^
Corn-mother (Old Woman, etc.) or by a Maiden (Harvest- the corn as
child, etc.), not both by a Corn-mother and by a Maiden, an'd a ^^
Why then did the Greeks represent the corn both as a daughter?
mother and a daughter?
In the Breton custom the mother-sheaf — a large figure Demeter
made out of the last sheaf with a small corn-doll inside of Z^^ ^^Z'
naps the
it — clearly represents both the Corn-mother and the Corn- ripe crop
daughter, the latter still unborn.* Again, in the Prussian sephone
custom just referred to, the woman who plays the part of the seed-
Corn-mother represents the ripe grain ; the child appears to
represent next year's corn, which may be regarded, naturally
enough, as the child of this year's corn, since it is from the
seed of this year's harvest that next year's crop will spring.
Further, we have seen that among the Malays of the Peninsula
^ See above, pp. 150 j^. Evolution of Kings, \\. 138. Amongst
2 It is possible that a ceremony the Minnitarees in North America, the
performed in a Cyprian worship of Prince of Neuwied saw a tall strong
Ariadne may have been of this nature : woman pretend to bring up a stalk of
at a certain annual sacrifice a young maize out of her stomach ; the object
man lay down and mimicked a of the ceremony was to secure a good
woman in child-bed. See Plutarch, crop of maize in the following year.
Tkesetis, 20 : iv Stj tt? dvaiq. tov See Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, Reisc
Topwiaiov /M-qvos IffTafxivov devr^pa Kara- in das innere Nord- America (Coblenz,
K\iv6ixiv6v TLva tCov veavlcTKwv (pdeyyeadai. 1 839- 1 84 1 ), ii. 269.
Kal iroLe^v Hirep C^OLVov<TaLyvvalKes. We 3 g^^ j.^^ ^^ .^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^
have already seen grounds for regardmg Evolution of Kings, ii. 97 sqq.
Ariadne as a goddess or spirit of vege-
tation. See The Magic Art and the ^ See above, p. 135.
PT. V. VOL. I P
2IO THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS chap.
and sometimes among the Highlanders of Scotland the spirit
of the grain is represented in double female form, both as old
and young, by means of ears taken alike from the ripe crop :
in Scotland the old spirit of the corn appears as the Carline
or Cailleach^ the young spirit as the Maiden ; while among
the Malays of the Peninsula the two spirits of the rice are
definitely related to each other as mother and child. ^ Judged
by these analogies Demeter would be the ripe crop of this
year ; Persephone would be the seed-corn taken from it and
sown in autumn, to reappear in spring.^ The descent of
Persephone into the lower world would thus be a mythical
expression for the sowing of the seed ; her reappearance in
spring would signify the sprouting of the young corn. In
this way the Persephone of one year becomes the Demeter
of the next, and this may very well have been the original
form of the myth. But when with the advance of religious
thought the corn came to be personified, no longer as a
being that went through the whole cycle of birth, growth,
reproduction, and death within a year, but as an immortal
goddess, consistency required that one of the two personifi-
cations, the mother or the daughter, should be sacrificed.
However, the double conception of the corn as mother and
daughter may have been too old and too deeply rooted in
the popular mind to be eradicated by logic, and so room
had to be found in the reformed myth both for mother
and daughter. This was done by assigning to Persephone
the character of the corn sown in autumn and sprouting in
spring, while Demeter was left to play the somewhat vague
part of the heavy mother of the corn, who laments its annual
disappearance underground, and rejoices over its reappear-
ance in spring. Thus instead of a regular succession of
divine beings, each living a year and then giving birth to her
successor, the reformed myth exhibits the conception of two
divine and immortal beings, one of whom annually disappears
into and reappears from the ground, while the other has little
to do but to weep and rejoice at the appropriate seasons.^
1 See above, pp. 140 sqq., 155 sqq., ripe crop. See above, pp. 57, 58 sq.
164 sqq., 197 sqq, 3 According to Augustine {De civi-
2 However, the Sicilians seem on the tate Dei, iv. 8) the Romans imagined
contrary to have regarded Demeter as a whole series of distinct deities, mostly
the seed-corn and Persephone as the goddesses, who took charge of the corn
i
VI THE CORN AS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER 211
This theory of the double personification of the corn Or the
in Greek myth assumes that both personifications (Demeter ^'"^^^^
■' . . -^ ^ may have
and Persephone) are original. But if we suppose that the started
Greek myth started with a single personification, the after- ^"'^ ^"^^
growth of a second personification may perhaps be explained fication of
as follows. On looking over the harvest customs which have ^ single ^^
been passed under review, it may be noticed that they involve goddess,
two distinct conceptions of the corn-spirit. For whereas in conception
some of the customs the corn-spirit is treated as immanent in ^^ ^ second
ffoddess
the corn, in others it is regarded as external to it. Thus may have
when a particular sheaf is called by the name of the corn- ^^^^ ^
... . later
spirit, and is dressed in clothes and handled with reverence,^ deveiop-
the spirit is clearly regarded as immanent in the corn. But '"^"''
when the spirit is said to make the crops grow by passing
through them, or to blight the grain of those against whom
she has a grudge,^ she is apparently conceived as distinct
from, though exercising power over, the corn. Conceived in
the latter way the corn-spirit is in a fair way to become a
deity of the corn, if she has not become so already. Of
these two conceptions, that of the corn-spirit as immanent in
the corn is doubtless the older, since the view of nature as
animated by indwelling spirits appears to have generally
preceded the view of it as controlled by external deities ;
to put it shortly, animism precedes deism. In the harvest
customs of our European peasantry the corn-spirit seems
to be conceived now as immanent in the corn and now as
external to it. In Greek mythology, on the other hand,
Demeter is viewed rather as the deity of the corn than as the
spirit immanent in it.^ The process of thought which leads
at all its various stages from the time England. See Folk-lore Journal, vii.
when it was committed to the ground (1888) p. 270 ; and Herrick's evidence,
to the time when it was lodged in the above, p. I47> note^. The Malay
granary. Such a multiplication of sorceress who cut the seven ears of
mythical beings to account for the rice to form the Rice-child kissed the
process of growth is probably late ears after she had cut them (W. W.
rather than early. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 241).
1 In some places it was customary j .,
to kneel down before the last sheaf, in ' ^^" ■^ "'
others to kiss it. See W. Mannhardt, ^ Even in one of the oldest docu-
Kornddmonen, p. 26; id., Mytho- vi\e.xA%,\!^&'^oxatx\c Hymn to Demeter,
logische Forschungen, p. 339. The Demeter is represented as the goddess
custom of kneeling and bowing before who controls the growth of the corn
the last corn is said to have been rather than as the spirit who is im-
observed, at least occasionally, in manent in it. See above, pp. 36 sq.
THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
Duplica-
tion of
deities as
a con-
sequence
of the
anthropo-
morphic
tendency.
Example
of such
duplication
in Japan,
where there
are two
distinct
deities of
the sun.
to the change from the one mode of conception to the other
is anthropomorphism, or the gradual investment of the im-
manent spirits with more and more of the attributes of
humanity. As men emerge from savagery the tendency to
humanise their divinities gains strength ; and the more
human these become the wider is the breach which severs
them from the natural objects of which they were at first
merely the animating spirits or souls. But in the progress
upwards from savagery men of the same generation do
not march abreast ; and though the new anthropomorphic
gods may satisfy the religious wants of the more developed
intelligences, the backward members of the community will
cling by preference to the old animistic notions. Now when
the spirit of any natural object such as the corn has been
invested with human qualities, detached from the object, and
converted into a deity controlling it, the object itself is, by
the withdrawal of its spirit, left inanimate ; it becomes, so to
say, a spiritual vacuum. But the popular fancy, intolerant
of such a vacuum, in other words, unable to conceive any-
thing as inanimate, immediately creates a fresh mythical
being, with which it peoples the vacant object. Thus the
same natural object comes to be represented in mythology
by two distinct beings : first by the old spirit now separated
from it and raised to the rank of a deity ; second, by the
new spirit, freshly created by the popular fancy to supply
the place vacated by the old spirit on its elevation to a
higher sphere. For example, in Japanese religion the solar
character of Ama-terasu, the great goddess of the Sun, has
become obscured, and accordingly the people have personified
the sun afresh under the name of Nichi-rin sajna, " sun-
wheeling personage," and O tentd sania, " august-heaven-
path-personage " ; to the lower class of Japanese at the
present day, especially to women and children, O tentd sama
is the actual sun, sexless, mythless, and unencumbered by
any formal worship, yet looked up to as a moral being who
rewards the good, punishes the wicked, and enforces oaths
made in his name.^ In such cases the problem for mythology
is, having got two distinct personifications of the same object,
what to do with them ? How are their relations to each other
1 W. G. Aston, Shinto (London, 1905), p. 127.
VI THE CORN AS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER 213
to be adjusted, and room found for both in the mythological
system ? When the old spirit or new deity is conceived as
creating or producing the object in question, the problem is
easily solved. Since the object is believed to be produced
by the old spirit, and animated by the new one, the latter, as
the soul of the object, must also owe its existence to the
former ; thus the old spirit will stand to the new one as pro-
ducer to produced, that is, in mythology, as parent to child,
and if both spirits are conceived as female, their relation will
be that of mother and daughter. In this way, starting from Perhaps
a single personification of the corn as female, mythic fancy "^'^ ^'^^f''
° ^ ^ J J personin-
might in time reach a double personification of it as mother cation of
and daughter. It would be very rash to affirm that this was ^ motiier^^
the way in which the myth of Demeter and Persephone and a
actually took shape ; but it seems a legitimate conjecture (Demeter
that the reduplication of deities, of which Demeter and and Perse-
Persephone furnish an example, may sometimes have arisen caseofsucii
in the way indicated. For example, among the pairs of ^ niythicai
•' . duplica-
deities dealt with in a former part of this work, it has been tion.
shewn that there are grounds for regarding both Isis and her
companion god Osiris as personifications of the corn.^ On
the hypothesis just suggested, Isis would be the old corn-
spirit, and Osiris would be the newer one, whose relationship
to the old spirit was variously explained as that of brother,
husband, and son ;^ for of course mythology would always
be free to account for the coexistence of the two divinities
in more ways than one. It must not, however, be forgotten
that this proposed explanation of such pairs of deities as
Demeter and Persephone or Isis and Osiris is purely con-
jectural, and is only given for what it is worth.
1 See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second - A. Pauly, Real-Encydopddie der
Edition, pp. 323 sqq., 330 sqq., 346 classischen Altert/nt7)imjissenschafi, v,
sqq. (Stuttgart, 1849) p. loii.
CHAPTER VII
LITYERSES
Death and
resurrec-
tion a
leading
incident in
the myth
of Per-
sephone,
as in the
myths of
Adonis,
Attis,
Osiris, and
Dionysus.
Popular
harvest
and vintage
customs in
ancient
Egypt.
Syria, and
Phrygia.
^ I. Songs of the Corn Reapers
In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to shew
that in the Corn-mother and Harvest-maiden of Northern
Europe we have the prototypes of Demeter and Persephone.
But an essential feature is still wanting to complete the
resemblance. A leading incident in the Greek myth is the
death and resurrection of Persephone ; it is this incident
which, coupled with the nature of the goddess as a deity of
vegetation, links the myth with the cults of Adonis, Attis,
Osiris, and Dionysus ; and it is in virtue of this incident
that the myth finds a place in our discussion of the Dying
God. It remains, therefore, to see whether the conception
of the annual death and resurrection of a god, which figures
so prominently in these great Greek and Oriental worships,
has not also its origin or its analogy in the rustic rites
observed by reapers and vine-dressers amongst the corn-
shocks and the vines.
Our general ignorance of the popular superstitions and
customs of the ancients has already been confessed. But
the obscurity which thus hangs over the first beginnings of
ancient religion is fortunately dissipated to some extent in
the present case. The worships of Osiris, Adonis, and Attis
had their respective seats, as we have seen, in Egypt, Syria,
and Phrygia ; and in each of these countries certain harvest
and vintage customs are known to have been observed, the
resemblance of which to each other and to the national rites
struck the ancients themselves, and, compared with the
214
CHAP. VII SONGS OF THE CORN REAPERS 215
harvest customs of modern peasants and barbarians, seems
to throw some light on the origin of the rites in question.
It has been already mentioned, on the authority of Maneros.
Diodorus, that in ancient Egypt the reapers were wont to son'<^'of'^^
lament over the first sheaf cut, invoking Isis as the goddess Egjptian
to whom they owed the discovery of corn.^ To the plaintive ""^^P^*"^'
song or cry sung or uttered by Egyptian reapers the Greeks
gave the name of Maneros, and explained the name by a
story that Maneros, the only son of the first Egyptian king,
invented agriculture, and, dying an untimely death, was thus
lamented by the people.^ It appears, however, that the name
Maneros is due to a misunderstanding of the formula
mdd-ne-hra, " Come to the house," which has been discovered
in various Egyptian writings, for example in the dirge of
Isis in the Book of the Dead.^ Hence we may suppose that
the cry mdd-ne-Jira was chanted by the reapers over the cut
corn as a dirge for the death of the corn-spirit (Isis or Osiris)
and a prayer for its return. As the cry was raised over the
first ears reaped, it would seem that the corn-spirit was
believed by the Egyptians to be present in the first corn
cut and to die under the sickle. We have seen that in the
Malay Peninsula and Java the first ears of rice are taken to
represent either the Soul of the Rice or the Rice-bride and
the Rice-bridegroom.'* In parts of Russia the first sheaf is
treated much in the same way that the last sheaf is treated
elsewhere. It is reaped by the mistress herself, taken home
and set in the place of honour near the holy pictures ; after-
wards it is threshed separately, and some of its grain is
mixed with the next year's seed-corn.^ In Aberdeenshire,
while the last corn cut was generally used to make the
clyack sheaf,^ it was sometimes, though rarely, the first corn
^ Diodorus Siculus, i. 14, in yap das LinosHcd (Berlin, 1852), p. 24.
KoX vvv Kara tov depiafj-bf toi)s wpwrovs According to another interpretation,
aiirjdivTas ardxi's devras tous dvdpunrovs however, Maneros is the Egyptian
KOTTTecrdai Tr\T]criov TOV 5pdy/j.aTos KaiTr}v ?naiitirosh, "Let us be merry." See
''Yaiv avaKaXeladai kt\. For Oeura^ Lauth, " Dber den agyptischen
we should perhaps read cnjvdevTas, Maneros," Sitzungsberichte der k'dnigl.
which is supported by the following buyer. Akademie der IVissensckaftcn
5p6.yiia.Tos. zu Aliinchen, 1S69, ii. 163- 194.
- Herodotus, ii. 79; Julius Pollux, iv. * Above, pp. i()J sgq.
54 ; Pausanias, ix. 29. 7 ; Athenaeus, ° W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the
xiv. II, p. 620 A. Russian People (London, 1872), pp.
^ H. Brugsch, Die Adonisldage ttnd 249 sq. ^ See above, pp. 158 s<].
2l6
LITYERSES
Linus or
Aiiinus, a
plaintive
song sung
at the
vintage in
Phoenicia.
Bormus, a
plaintive
song sung
by Marian-
dynian
reapers in
Biihynia.
cut that was dressed up as a woman and carried home with
ceremony.^
In Phoenicia and Western Asia a plaintive song, like
that chanted by the Egyptian corn-reapers, was sung at the
vintage and probably (to judge by analogy) also at harvest.
This Phoenician song was called by the Greeks Linus or
Aiiinus and explained, like Maneros, as a lament for the
death of a youth named Linus.^ According to one story
Linus was brought up by a shepherd, but torn to pieces by
his dogs.^ But, like Maneros, the name Linus or Aiiinus
appears to have originated in a verbal misunderstanding, and
to be nothing more than the cry ai lanu, that is " Woe to us,"
which the Phoenicians probably uttered in mourning for
Adonis ; ^ at least Sappho seems to have regarded Adonis
and Linus as equivalent.^
In Bithynia a like mournful ditty, called Bormus or
Borimus, was chanted by Mariandynian reapers. Bormus
was said to have been a handsome youth, the son of King
Upias or of a wealthy and distinguished man. One summer
day, watching the reapers at work in his fields, he went to
fetch them a drink of water and was never heard of more.
So the reapers sought for him, calling him in plaintive
strains, which they continued to chant at harvest ever after-
wards.^
Lityerses,
a song
sung at
§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit
In Phrygia the corresponding song, sung by harvesters
both at reaping and at threshing, was called Lityerses.
' W. Gregor, " Quelques coutumes
du Nord-est du comte d'Aberdeen,"
Reviie des Traditions populaires, iii.
(1888) p. 487 (should be 535).
"^ Homer, Iliad, xviii. 570 ; Herodo-
tus, ii. 79 ; Pausanias, ix. 29. 6-9 ;
Conon, Narrat. 19. For the form
Aiiinus see Suidas, s.v. ; Euripides,
Orestes, 1395; Sophocles, Ajax, 627.
Compare Moschus, Idyl. iii. i ;
Callimachus, Hymn to Apollo, 20.
See Greve, s.v. "Linos," in W. H.
Roscher's AiisfiihrUches Lexikon der
griech. und rdm. Mytliologie, ii. 2053
sqq.
^ Conon, N'arrat. 19.
* F. C. Movers, Die Ph'dnizier, i.
(Bonn, 1 84 1), p. 246 ; W. Mannliardt,
Antike Wald- und Feldknlte (Berlin,
1877), p. 281. In Hebrew the ex-
pression would be o'i lanu («^ 'ix),
which occurs in i Samuel, iv. 7 and 8 ;
Jeremiah, iv. 13, vi. 4. However,
the connexion of the Linus song with
the lament for Adonis is regarded by
Baudissin as very doubtful. See W.
W. Graf Baudissin, Adovis und
Esrnun (Leipsic, 191 1 ), p. 360, note^.
^ Pausanias, ix. 29. 8.
^ Julius Pollux, iv. 54 ; Athenaeus,
xiv. II, pp. 619 F-620 A : Hesychius,
svv. Bupfxov and Mapioi'Si'fos dprjvoi.
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 217
According to one story, Lityerses was a bastard son of reaping
Midas, King of Phrygia, and dwelt at Ceiaenae. He ^hrtshing
used to reap the corn, and had an enormous appetite, in Phrygia.
When a stranger happened to enter the corn-field or to Lityerses!
pass by it, Lityerses gave him plenty to eat and drink,
then took him to the corn-fields on the banks of the
Maeander and compelled him to reap along with him.
Lastly, it was his custom to wrap the stranger in a sheaf,
cut off his head with a sickle, and carry away his
body, swathed in the corn stalks. But at last Hercules
undertook to reap with him, cut off his head with the
sickle, and threw his body into the river.^ As Hercules
is reported to have slain Lityerses in the same way that
Lityerses slew others (as Theseus treated Sinis and Sciron),
we may infer that Lityerses used to throw the bodies of his
victims into the river. According to another version of the
story, Lityerses, a son of Midas, was wont to challenge
people to a reaping match with him, and if he vanquished
them he used to thrash them ; but one day he met with a
stronger reaper, who slew him.^
There are some grounds for supposing that in these The
stories of Lityerses we have the description of a Phrygian Lit\^r°es
harvest custom in accordance with which certain persons, seems to
especially strangers passing the harvest field, were regularly ^^ ^-y^
regarded as embodiments of the corn-spirit, and as such were Phrygian
seized by the reapers, wrapt in sheaves, and beheaded, their custom of
bodies, bound up in the corn-stalks, being afterwards thrown kiihng
^ - , . strangers
into water as a rain-charm. The grounds for this sup- asembodi-
position are, first, the resemblance of the Lityerses story to "^1^"^!^^.°*^
the harvest customs of European peasantry, and, second, the spirit.
frequency of human sacrifices offered by savage races to
^ The story was told by Sositheus in sickle with which Lityerses beheaded
his play of Daphnis. His verses have his victims. Servius calls Lityerses a
been preserved in the tract of an king and says that Hercules cut off his
anonymous writer. See Scripiores head with the sickle that had been given
rerutn fnirabilium Graeci, ed. A. him to reap with. Lityerses is the sub-
Westermann (Brunswick, 1839), pp. ject of a special study by W. Mannhardt
220 sq.\ also Athenaeus, x. 8, p. {Mythologische Fo7-schungen,i^^.\ sqq.),
415 B; Scholiast on Theocritus, x. whom I follow. Compare O. Crusius,
41; Photius, Lexicon, Suidas, and s.v. " Lityerses," in W^. H. Roscher's
Hesychius, s.v. "Lityerses" ; Aposto- Ausfiihrliches Lexikoii der griech. 70td
lius, Centur. x. 74; Servius, on Virgil, rd?n. Mytkologie, ii. 2065 sqq.
Bucol. viii. 68. Photius mentions the ^ Julius Pollux, iv. 54.
2l8
LIT Y ERSES
Contests
among
reapers,
binders,
and
threshers
in order
not to be
the last at
their work.
promote the fertility of the fields. We will examine these
grounds successively, beginning with the former.
In comparing the story with the harvest customs of
Europe/ three points deserve special attention, namely : I. the
reaping match and the binding of persons in the sheaves ; 1 1, the
killing of the corn-spirit or his representatives ; III. the treat-
ment of visitors to the harvest field or of strangers passing it.
I. In regard to the first head, we have seen that in
modern Europe the person who cuts or binds or threshes the
last sheaf is often exposed to rough treatment at the hands
of his fellow-labourers. For example, he is bound up in the
last sheaf, and, thus encased, is carried or carted about,
beaten, drenched with water, thrown on a dunghill, and so
forth. Or, if he is spared this horseplay, he is at least
the subject of ridicule or is thought to be destined to suffer
some misfortune in the course of the year. Hence the
harvesters are naturally reluctant to give the last cut at
reaping or the last stroke at threshing or to bind the last
sheaf, and towards the close of the work this reluctance
produces an emulation among the labourers, each striving
to finish his task as fast as possible, in order that he
may escape the invidious distinction of being last.^ For
example, in the neighbourhood of Danzig, when the winter
corn is cut and mostly bound up in sheaves, the portion
which still remains to be bound is divided amongst the
women binders, each of whom receives a swath of equal
length to bind. A crowd of reapers, children, and idlers
gather round to witness the contest, and at the word, " Seize
the Old Man," the women fall to work, all binding their
allotted swaths as hard as they can. The spectators watch
them narrowly, and the woman who cannot keep pace with
the rest and consequently binds the last sheaf has to carry
1 In this comparison I closely follow
W. Mannhardt, Mythologische For-
schungen, pp. 1 8 sqq.
^ Compare above, pp. 134, 136,
137 sq., 140, 142, 143, 144, 145,
147 si/., 149, 164 sg. On the other
hand, the last sheaf is sometimes an
object of desire and emulation. See
above, pp. 136, 141, 153, 154 sq.,
156, 162 note^, 165. It is so at
Balquhidder also {Folk-lore Journal,
vi. 269) ; and it was formerly so on
the Gareloch, Dumbartonshire, where
there was a competition for the honour
of cutting it, and handfuls of standing
corn used to be hidden under sheaves
in order that the last to be uncovered
should form the Maiden. — (From the
information of Archie Leitch. See
pp. 157 sq.)
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 219
the Old Man (that is, the last sheaf made up in the form of
a man) to the farmhouse and deliver it to the farmer with
the words, " Here I bring you the Old Man." At the supper
which follows, the Old Man is placed at the table and receives
an abundant portion of food, which, as he cannot eat it, falls
to the share of the woman who carried him. Afterwards the
Old Man is placed in the yard and all the people dance
round him. Or the woman who bound the last sheaf dances
for a good while with the Old Man, while the rest form a
ring round them ; afterwards they all, one after the other,
dance a single round with him. Further, the woman who
bound the last sheaf goes herself by the name of the Old
Man till the next harvest, and is often mocked with the cry,
" Here comes the Old Man." ^ In the Mittelmark district of
Prussia, when the rye has been reaped, and the last sheaves
are about to be tied up, the binders stand in two rows
facing each other, every woman with her sheaf and her
straw rope before her. At a given signal they all tie up
their sheaves, and the one who is the last to finish is ridiculed
by the rest. Not only so, but her sheaf is made up into
human shape and called the Old Man, and she must
carry it home to the farmyard, where the harvesters dance in
a circle round her and it. Then they take the Old Man
to the farmer and deliver it to him with the words, " We
bring the Old Man to the Master. He may keep him till
he gets a new one." After that the Old Man is set up
against a tree, where he remains for a long time, the butt of
many jests.^ At Aschbach in Bavaria, when the reaping is
nearly finished, the reapers say, " Now, we will drive out the
Old Man." Each of them sets himself to reap a patch of
corn as fast as he can ; he who cuts the last handful or the
last stalk is greeted by the rest with an exulting cry, " You
have the Old Man." Sometimes a black mask is fastened on
the reaper's face and he is dressed in woman's clothes ; or if
the reaper is a woman, she is dressed in man's clothes. A
dance follows. At the supper the Old Man gets twice as
large a portion of food as the others. The proceedings are
similar at threshing ; the person who gives the last stroke is
^ W. Mannhardt, Alythologische ^ A. Kuhn, Mdrkische Sagen toid
Forsckungen, pp. 19 sq . Mdrchen (Berlin, 1843), p. 342.
thresher.
220 LITYERSES chap.
said to have the Old Man. At the supper given to the
threshers he has to eat out of the cream-ladle and to drink a
great deal. Moreover, he is quizzed and teased in all sorts
of ways till he frees himself from further annoyance by
treating the others to brandy or beer.^
Custom of These examples illustrate the contests in reaping, thresh-
wrapping jj^g^ ^^^ binding which take place amongst the harvesters,
corn-stalks from their unwillingness to suffer the ridicule and discomfort
the last incurred by the one who happens to finish his work last. It
binder, or will be remembered that the person who is last at reaping,
binding, or threshing, is regarded as the representative of
the corn-spirit,^ and this idea is more fully expressed by
binding him or her in corn-stalks. The latter custom has
been already illustrated, but a few more instances may be
added. At Kloxin, near Stettin, the harvesters call out to
the woman who binds the last sheaf, " You have the Old
Man, and must keep him." The Old Man is a great bundle
of corn decked with flowers and ribbons, and fashioned into
a rude semblance of the human form. It is fastened on a
rake or strapped on a horse, and brought with music to the
village. In delivering the Old Man to the farmer, the
woman says : —
" Here, dear Sir, is the Old Man.
He can stay no longer oti the field.
He can hide himself no longer.
He must come into the village.
Ladies and gentlemen, pray be so kind
As to give the Old Man a present.''''
As late as the first half of the nineteenth century the
custom was to tie up the woman herself in pease-straw, and
bring her with music to the farmhouse, where the harvesters
danced with her till the pease-straw fell ofif.^ In other
villages round Stettin, when the last harvest-waggon is being
loaded, there is a regular race amongst the women, each
striving not to be last. For she who places the last sheaf
on the waggon is called the Old Man, and is completely
^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische a«j 7>4«W«^«i (Vienna, 1878), p. 222,
Forschungen, p. 20; F. Panzer, Beitrag § 69.
zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 2 Above, pp. 167 sq.
1848-1855), ii. p. 217, §397; A. Witz- 3 w. Mannhardt, Mythologische
schel, Sagefi, Sitten unci Gebrduche Forschiaigeii, p. 22.
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT -2.-21
swathed in corn-stalks ; she is also decked with flowers, and
flowers and a helmet of straw are placed on her head. In
solemn procession she carries the harvest-crown to the squire,
over whose head she holds it while she utters a string of
good wishes. At the dance which follows, the Old Man
has the right to choose his, or rather her, partner ; it is an
honour to dance with him.^ At Blankenfelde, in the district
of Potsdam, the woman who binds the last sheaf at the rye-
harvest is saluted with the cry, " You have the Old Man."
A woman is then tied up in the last sheaf in such a way
that only her head is left free ; her hair also is covered with
a cap made of rye-stalks, adorned with ribbons and flowers.
She is called the Harvest-man, and must keep dancing in
front of the last harvest-waggon till it reaches the squire's
house, where she receives a present and is released from her
envelope of corn.^ At Gommern, near Magdeburg, the
reaper who cuts the last ears of corn is often wrapt up in
corn-stalks so completely that it is hard to see whether
there is a man in the bundle or not. Thus wrapt up he is
taken by another stalwart reaper on his back, and carried
round the field amidst the joyous cries of the harvesters.^
At Neuhausen, near Merseburg, the person who binds the
last sheaf is wrapt in ears of oats and saluted as the Oats-
man, whereupon the others dance round him.^ At Brie, Isle
de France, the farmer himself is tied up in the first sheaf.^
At the harvest-home at Udvarhely, Transylvania, a person
is encased in corn-stalks, and wears on his head a crown
made out of the last ears cut. On reaching the village he is
soused with water over and over.^ At Dingelstedt, in the
district of Erfurt, down to the first half of the nineteenth
century it was the custom to tie up a man in the last sheaf
He was called the Old Man, and was brought home on the
last waggon, amid huzzas and music. On reaching the farm-
yard he was rolled round the barn and drenched with water.^
At Nordlingen in Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing is wrapt in straw and rolled on the threshing-
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische * Ibid. pp. 23 sq.
Forschungen, p. 22. * Ibid. p. 24.
2 Ibid. pp. 22 sq. ^ Ibid. p. 24.
•^ Ibid. p. 23. "^ Ibid. p. 24.
LIT VERSES
The corn-
spirit,
driven
out of the
last corn,
lives in the
barn dur-
ing the
winter.
Similar
ideas as to
the last
corn in
India.
floor.^ In some parts of Oberpfalz, Bavaria, he is said to
" get the Old Man," is wrapt in straw, and carried to a
neighbour who has not yet finished his threshing.^ In Silesia
the woman who binds the last sheaf has to submit to a good
deal of horse-play. She is pushed, knocked down, and tied
up in the sheaf, after which she is called the corn-puppet
{Kornpopet)? In Thiiringen a sausage is stuck in the last
sheaf at threshing, and thrown, with the sheaf, on the
threshing-floor. It is called the Barremviirst or Ba::enwurst,
and is eaten by all the threshers. After they have eaten it a
man is encased in pease-straw, and thus attired is led through
the village.'*
" In all these cases the idea is that the spirit of the
corn — the Old Man of vegetation — is driven out of the corn
last cut or last threshed, and lives in the barn during the
winter. At sowing-time he goes out again to the fields to
resume his activity as animating force among the sprouting
corn." "
Ideas of the same sort appear to attach to the last corn
in India. At Hoshangabad, in Central India, when the reaping
is nearly done, a patch of corn, about a rood in extent, is left
standing in the cultivator's last field, and the reapers rest a little.
Then they rush at this remnant, tear it up, and cast it into the
air, shouting victory to one or other of the local gods, according
to their religious persuasion. A sheaf is made out of this
corn, tied to a bamboo, set up in the last harvest cart, and
carried home in triumph. Here it is fastened up in the
threshing-floor or attached to a tree or to the cattle-shed,
where its services are held to be essential for the purpose of
averting the evil-eye.® A like custom prevails in the eastern
districts of the North- Western Provinces of India. Sometimes
a little patch is left untilled as a refuge for the field-spirit ;
sometimes it is sown, and when the corn of this patch has
been reaped with a rush and a shout, it is presented to the
^ Ibid. pp. 24 sq.
* Ibid. p. 25.
' P. Drechsler, Sitte, Branch tiiid
Volksglanbe in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-
1906), ii. 65.
* A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sit tea und
Gebrdttcke aus Thiiringen (Vienna,
1878), p. 223, § 70.
» W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen, pp. 25 sq.
6 C. A. Elliot, Hoshangabad Settle-
ment Report, p. 178, quoted in Punjab
Notes and Queries, iii. §§ 8, 168 (Octo-
ber and December, 1885); W. Crooke,
Popular Religion and Folklore of North-
ern India (Westminster, 1896), ii. 306.
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 223
priest, who offers it to the local gods or bestows it on a
beggar.^
II. Passing to the second point of comparison between Thecorn-
the Lityerses story and European harvest customs, we have posed To'"
now to see that in the latter the corn-spirit is often believed ^^ ^^jiied at
to be killed at reaping or threshing. In the Romsdal and threshing.'^
other parts of Norway, when the haymaking is over, the
people say that " the Old Hay-man has been killed." In
some parts of Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke
at threshing is said to have killed the Corn-man, the Oats-
man, or the Wheat-man, according to the crop.^ In the
Canton of Tillot, in Lothringen, at threshing the last corn
the men keep time with their flails, calling out as they
thresh, " We are killing the Old Woman ! We are killing
the Old Woman ! " If there is an old woman in the house
she is warned to save herself, or she will be struck dead.^
Near Ragnit, in Lithuania, the last handful of corn is left
standing by itself, with the words, " The Old Woman {Bobd)
is sitting in there." Then a young reaper whets his scythe,
and, with a strong sweep, cuts down the handful. It is now
said of him that " he has cut off the Boba's head " ; and he
receives a gratuity from the farmer and a jugful of water over
his head from the farmer's wife.* According to another
account, every Lithuanian reaper makes haste to finish his
task ; for the Old Rye-woman lives in the last stalks, and
whoever cuts the last stalks kills the Old Rye-woman, and by
killing her he brings trouble on himself.'^ In Wilkischken, in
the district of Tilsit, the man who cuts the last corn goes by
the name of " the killer of the Rye-woman." ^ In Lithuania,
again, the corn-spirit is believed to be killed at threshing as
well as at reaping. When only a single pile of corn remains
to be threshed, all the threshers suddenly step back a few
paces, as if at the word of command. Then they fall to work,
plying their flails with the utmost rapidity and vehemence,
till they come to the last bundle. Upon this they fling
themselves with almost frantic fury, straining every nerve,
and raining blows on it till the word " Halt ! " rings out
1 W. Crooke, op. cit. ii. 306 sq. ^ Ibid. p. 334.
2 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische * Ibid. p. 330.
Forschungen, p. 31. ^ Ibid. " Ibid. p. 331.
224
LIT VERSES
sharply from the leader. The man whose flail is the last to
fall after the command to stop has been given is immediately
surrounded by all the rest, crying out that " he has struck
the Old Rye-woman dead." He has to expiate the deed by
treating them to brandy ; and, like the man who cuts the
last corn, he is known as " the killer of the Old Rye-
woman." ^ Sometimes in Lithuania the slain corn-spirit was
represented by a puppet. Thus a female figure was made
out of corn-stalks, dressed in clothes, and placed on the
threshing-floor, under the heap of corn which was to be
threshed last. Whoever thereafter gave the last stroke at
threshing " struck the Old Woman dead." ^ We have already
met with examples of burning the figure which represents
the corn-spirit.^ In the East Riding of Yorkshire a custom
called " burning the Old Witch " is observed on the last day
of harvest. A small sheaf of corn is burnt on the field in a
fire of stubble ; peas are parched at the fire and eaten with
a liberal allowance of ale ; and the lads and lasses romp
about the flames and amuse themselves by blackening each
Corn-spirit Other's faces.'* Sometimes, again, the corn -spirit is repre-
""^P""^" , sented by a man, who lies down under the last corn ;
sented bv ■'
a man, ' it is threshed upon his body, and the people say that
"the Old Man is being beaten to death." ^ We saw that
sometimes the farmer's wife is thrust, together with the last
sheaf, under the threshing-machine, as if to thresh her, and
that afterwards a pretence is made of winnowing her.^ At
Volders, in the Tyrol, husks of corn are stuck behind the
neck of the man who gives the last stroke at threshing, and
he is throttled with a straw garland. If he is tall, it is
believed that the corn will be tall next year. Then he is
tied on a bundle and flung into the river.'' In Carinthia,
the thresher who gave the last stroke, and the person who
1 W. Mannhardt, Afylhologische 1890. I have to thank Mr. E. S.
Forschungen, p. 335. Hartland for calling my attention to
2 Ibid. p. 335. the custom and allowing me to see
3 Above, pp. 135, 146. Mr. Nicholson's letter.
4 J. Nicholson, Folk-lore of East 6 w. Mannhardt, Z)/6- A'^;-«rf<7:/«^«^//,
Yorkshire (London, Hull, and Drif- 26
field, 1890), p. 28, supplemented by a '
letter of the author's addressed to Mr. Above, pp. 149 sq.
E. S. Hartland and dated 33 Leices- ^ W. Mannhardt, Mylhologisclu
ter Street, Hull, nth September, Forschungen, p. 50.
who is
threshed
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 225
untied the last sheaf on the threshing-floor, are bound hand
and foot with straw bands, and crowns of straw are placed
on their heads. Then they are tied, face to face, on a
sledge, dragged through the village, and flung into a brook.^
The custom of throwing the representative of the corn-spirit
into a stream, like that of drenching him with water, is,
as usual, a rain-charm.^
III. Thus far the representatives of the corn-spirit have corn-spirit
generally been the man or woman who cuts, binds, or g^^j^^ u
threshes the last corn. We now come to the cases in which a stranger
the corn-spirit is represented either by a stranger passing °^ ^he'^''°^
the harvest-field (as in the Lityerses tale), or by a visitor harvest-
entering it for the first time. All over Germany it is ig^treated
customary for the reapers or threshers to lay hold of accord-
passing strangers and bind them with a rope made of
corn-stalks, till they pay a forfeit ; and when the farmer
himself or one of his guests enters the field or the threshing-
floor for the first time, he is treated in the same way.
Sometimes the rope is only tied round his arm or his feet
or his neck.^ But sometimes he is regularly swathed in
corn. Thus at Solor in Norway, whoever enters the field,
be he the master or a stranger, is tied up in a sheaf and
must pay a ransom. In the neighbourhood of Soest, when
the farmer visits the flax-pullers for the first time, he is
completely enveloped in flax. Passers-by are also sur-
rounded by the women, tied up in flax, and compelled to
stand brandy.'^ At Nordlingen strangers are caught with
straw ropes and tied up in a sheaf till they pay a forfeit.^
Among the Germans of Haselberg, in West Bohemia, as soon
as a farmer had given the last corn to be threshed on the
threshing-floor, he was swathed in it and had to redeem
1 Ibid. pp. 50 sq. deutscken IVestbokmen (Prague, 1905),
2 See above, pp. 146, 170 note^; p. 193 ; A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten
Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, und Gebrdnche ans TlmringeniyxcwViZ.,
pp. 195 sqq. 1878), p. 221, § 61 ; R. Krause, Sitten,
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische For- Gebrduche und Aberglauben in West-
schunge pp. 32 sqq. Compare K. preussen (Berlin, preface dated March,
'Ba.risch, Sagen, Mdrckeji und Gebrduche 1904), p. 51 ; Revue des Traditions
aus Meklenburg (Vienna, 1879- 1880), populaires, iii. (1888) p. 598.
ii. 2q6 j^. ; Y.T>xtQ>ci%\&x,Sitte, Branch , ,.j ,, 1 j. nr ^1 1 ■ 1
/jT-f, 7 1- c L7 ■ /T • • * W. Mannhardt, Mytholosiische
und Volksglaube tn Schlesten (Leipsic, zr 1, e
1903- 1 906), ii. 62 sq. ; A. John, ''^^'' " ^^ ' "P" ^^ ^'
Sitte, Branch und Volksglaube im "" Ibid. p. 36.
PT. V. vol.. I Q
226 LITYERSES chap.
himself by a present of cakes.^ In Anhalt, when the pro-
prietor or one of his family, the steward, or even a stranger
enters the harvest-field for the first time after the reaping
has begun, the wife of the chief reaper ties a rope twisted of
corn-ears, or a nosegay made of corn-ears and flowers, to
his arm, and he is obliged to ransom himself by the payment
of a fine.^ In the canton of Putanges, in Normandy, a
pretence of tying up the owner of the land in the last sheaf
of wheat is still practised, or at least was still practised some
quarter of a century ago. The task falls to the women alone.
They throw themselves on the proprietor, seize him by the
arms, the legs, and the body, throw him to the ground, and
stretch him on the last sheaf Then a show is made of
binding him, and the conditions to be observed at the
harvest-supper are dictated to him. When he has accepted
them, he is released and allowed to get up.^ At Brie, Isle
de France, when any one who does not belong to the farm
passes by the harvest-field, the reapers give chase. If they
catch him, they bind him in a sheaf and bite him, one after
the other, in the forehead, crying, " You shall carry the key
of the field." ^ " To have the key " is an expression used
by harvesters elsewhere in the sense of to cut or bind or
thresh the last sheaf ; ^ hence, it is equivalent to the phrases
"You have the Old Man," "You are the Old Man," which
are addressed to the cutter, binder, or thresher of the last
sheaf Therefore, when a stranger, as at Brie, is tied up in
a sheaf and told that he will " carry the key of the field," it
is as much as to say that he is the Old Man, that is, an
embodiment of the corn-spirit. In hop-picking, if a well-
dressed stranger passes the hop-yard, he is seized by the
women, tumbled into the bin, covered with leaves, and not
released till he has paid a fine.^ In some parts of Scotland,
* A. John, Sitte, Branch, und ° For the evidence, see t'dtd. p. 36,
Volksglaube im deutschen Westbdhmeti, note 2. The "key" in the European
(Prague, 1905), p. 194. custom is probably intended to serve
'^ O. Hartung, " Zur Volkskunde aus the same purpose as the "knot" in
Anhalt," Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir the Cingalese custom, as to which see
Volkskunde, vii. (1897) p. 153. Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp.
^ J. Lecoeur, Esguisses du Socage 308 sq.
No)-mand (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883- ^ From a letter written to me by
1887), ii. 240^5^. Colonel Henry Wilson, of Farnborough
* W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Lodge, Farnborough, Kent. The
Forschungen, p. 36. letter is dated 21st March, 1901.
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 227
particularly in the counties of Fife and Kinross, down to
recent times the reapers used to seize and dump, as it was
called, any stranger who happened to visit or pass by the
harvest field. The custom was to lay hold of the stranger
by his ankles and armpits, lift him up, and bring the lower
part of his person into violent contact with the ground.
Women as well as men were liable to be thus treated.
The practice of interposing a sheaf between the sufferer
and the ground is said to be a modern refinement.^ Com-
paring this custom with the one practised at Putanges in
Normandy, which has just been described, we may con-
jecture that in Scotland the " dumping " of strangers on the
harvest-field was originally a preliminary to wrapping them
up in sheaves of corn.
Ceremonies of a somewhat similar kind are performed by cere-
the Tarahumare Indians of Mexico not only at harvest but ^°^^^
also at hoeing and ploughing. " When the work of hoeing Tarahu-
and weeding is finished, the workers seize the master of the ^^^^^^
field, and, tying his arms crosswise behind him, load all the at hoeing,
implements, that is to say, the hoes, upon his back, fastening \^^ '"^
them with ropes. Then they form two single columns, the harvest.
landlord in the middle between them, and all facing the
house. Thus they start homeward. Simultaneously the
two men at the heads of the columns begin to run rapidly
forward some thirty yards, cross each other, then turn back,
run along the two columns, cross each other again at the rear
and take their places each at the end of his row. As they
pass each other ahead and in the rear of the columns they
beat their mouths with the hollow of their hands and yell.
As soon as they reach their places at the foot, the next pair
in front of the columns starts off, running in the same way,
and thus pair after pair performs the tour, the procession all
the time advancing toward the house. A short distance in
front of it they come to a halt, and are met by two young
men who carry red handkerchiefs tied to sticks like flags.
The father of the family, still tied up and loaded with the
hoes, steps forward alone and kneels down in front of his
house-door. The flag-bearers wave their banners over him,
and the women of the household come out and kneel on
1 "Notes on Harvest Customs," The Folk-lore Journal^ vii. (1889) pp. 52 sq.
228 LIT Y ERSES chap.
their left knees, first toward the east, and after a little while
toward each of the other cardinal points, west, south, and north.
In conclusion the flags are waved in front of the house.
The father then rises and the people untie him, whereupon
he first salutes the women with the usual greeting, ' Kwlra ! '
or ' Kwirevd I ' Now they all go into the house, and the man
makes a short speech thanking them all for the assistance
they have given him, for how could he have gotten through
his work without them ? They have provided him with a
year's life (that is, with the wherewithal to sustain it), and
now he is going to give them tesvino. He gives a drinking-
gourd full to each one in the assembly, and appoints one
man among them to distribute more to all. The same
ceremony is performed after the ploughing and after the
harvesting. On the first occasion the tied man may be
made to carry the yoke of the oxen, on the second he does
not carry anything." ^ The meaning of these Mexican
ceremonies is not clear. Perhaps the custom of tying up
the farmer at hoeing, ploughing, and reaping is a form of
expiation or apology offered to the spirits of the earth, who
are naturally disturbed by agricultural operations.^ When
the Yabim of Simbang in German New Guinea see that
the taro plants in their fields are putting forth leaves, they
offer sacrifice of sago-broth and pork to the spirits of the
former owners of the land, in order that they may be kindly
disposed and not do harm but let the fruits ripen.^
Similarly when the Alfoors or Toradjas of Central Celebes
are planting a new field, they offer rice, eggs, and so forth
to the souls of the former owners of the land, hoping that,
mollified by these offerings, the souls will make the crops to
grow and thrive.* However, this explanation of the Mexican
ceremonies at hoeing, ploughing, and reaping is purely con-
jectural. In these ceremonies there is no evidence that, as
in the parallel European customs, the farmer is identified
^ C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico pelijk leven van den Poso-Alfoer,"
(London, 1903), i. 214 sq. Mededeelin^en van ivege het Neder-
2 Compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris, landsche Zendelinggenootschap, xxxix.
Second Edition, pp. 75 sq. (1895) p. 137. As to the influence
^ Yi..Vei\.&x, A'omm heriiber und kilj which the spirits of the dead are
uns ! Heft 2 (Barmen, 1898), p. 7. thought to exercise on the growth of
* A. C. Kruijt. " Een en ander the crops, see above, pp. 103 sq., and
aangaande het geestelijk en maatschap- below, vol. ii. pp. 1095'^^.
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 229
with the corn-spirit, since he is not wrapt up in the
sheaves.
Be that as it may, the evidence adduced above suffices Pretence
to prove that, Hke the ancient Lityerses, modern European J^g^g^^p^^g
reapers have been wont to lay hold of a passing stranger of killing
and tie him up in a sheaf. It is not to be expected that \-^^y^ jj^g^j.
they should complete the parallel by cutting off his head ; scythes.
but if they do not take such a strong step, their language
and gestures are at least indicative of a desire to do so. For
instance, in Mecklenburg on the first day of reaping, if the
master or mistress or a stranger enters the field, or merely
passes by it, all the mowers face towards him and sharpen
their scythes, clashing their whet-stones against them in
unison, as if they were making ready to mow. Then the
woman who leads the mowers steps up to him and ties
a band round his left arm. He must ransom himself by
payment of a forfeit.^ Near Ratzeburg, when the master
or other person of mark enters the field or passes by it,
all the harvesters stop work and march towards him in a
body, the men with their scythes in front. On meeting him
they form up in line, men and women. The men stick the
poles of their scythes in the ground, as they do in whetting
them ; then they take off their caps and hang them on the
scythes, while their leader stands forward and makes a
speech. When he has done, they all whet their scythes in
measured time very loudly, after which they put on their
caps. Two of the women binders then come forward ; one
of them ties the master or stranger (as the case may be)
with corn -ears or with a silken band ; the other delivers
a rhyming address. The following are specimens of the
speeches made by the reaper on these occasions. In some
parts of Pomerania every passer-by is stopped, his way being
barred with a corn-rope. The reapers form a circle round
him and sharpen their scythes, while their leader says : —
" The men are ready.
The scythes are bent.
The corn is great and small.
The gentleman must be tnoived."
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschtmgen, p. 39.
230
LIT VERSES
Then the process of whetting the scythes is repeated.^ At
Ramin, in the district of Stettin, the stranger, standing
encircled by the reapers, is thus addressed : —
" WeHl stroke the gentleman
With our naked sword.
Wherewith we shear meadows and fields.
We shear princes and lords.
Labourers are often athirst ;
If the gentleman will stand beer and brandy
The joke will soon be over.
But., if our prayer he does ?iot like,
The sword has a right to strike." ^
That in these customs the whetting of the scythes is
really meant as a preliminary to mowing appears from the
following variation of the preceding customs. In the district
of Liineburg, when any one enters the harvest-field, he is
asked whether he will engage a good fellow. If he says
yes, the harvesters mow some swaths, yelling and screaming,
and then ask him for drink-money.^
On the threshing-floor strangers are also regarded as
embodiments of the corn-spirit, and are treated accordingly.
of choking At Wicdinghardc in Schleswig when a stranger comes to
lurtheir the threshing-floor he is asked, " Shall I teach you the flail-
flaiis. dance ? " If he says yes, they put the arms of the threshing-
flail round his neck as if he were a sheaf of corn, and press
them together so tight that he is nearly choked.* In some
parishes of Wermland (Sweden), when a stranger enters
the threshing-floor where the threshers are at work, they say
that " they will teach him the threshing-song." Then they
put a flail round his neck and a straw rope about his body.
Also, as we have seen, if a stranger woman enters the
threshing-floor, the threshers put a flail round her body and
a wreath of corn-stalks round her neck, and call out, " See
the Corn -woman! See! that is how the Corn -maiden
looks ! " 5
Pretence
made by
threshers
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschtingen, pp. 39 sq.
2 Ibid. p. 40. For the speeches made
by the woman who binds the stranger
or the master, see ibid. p. 41 ; C.
Lemke, Volksthilmliches in Ostpretissen
(Mohrungen, 1884-1887), i. 23 sq.
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschuiigen, pp. 41 sq.
* W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 42. See
also above, p. 150.
^ W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 42. See
above, p. 149. In Thiiringen a being
called the Rush-cutter [Binsensclmeidcr]
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 231
In these customs, observed both on the harvest-field and Custom
on the threshing-floor, a passing stranger is regarded as a "I'j^g^^'^
personification of the corn, in other words, as the corn-spirit ; madder-
and a show is made of treating him like the corn by mow- Zealand"^
ing, binding, and threshing him. If the reader still doubts
whether European peasants can really regard a passing
stranger in this light, the following custom should set his
doubts at rest. During the madder-harvest in the Dutch
province of Zealand a stranger passing by a field, where the
people are digging the madder-roots, will sometimes call out
to them Koortspillers (a term of reproach). Upon this, two
of the fleetest runners make after him, and, if they catch
him, they bring him back to the madder-field and bury him
in the earth up to his middle at least, jeering at him the
while ; then they ease nature before his face.^
This last act is to be explained as follows. The spirit of The spirit
the corn and of other cultivated plants is sometimes conceived, °f 'hs.'=°5"
^ ' conceived
not as immanent in the plant, but as its owner; hence the cut- as poor and
ting of the corn at harvest, the digging of the roots, and the ^y ^j^^^
gathering of fruit from the fruit-trees are each and all of them reapers.
acts of spoliation, which strip him of his property and reduce
him to poverty. Hence he is often known as " the Poor
Man " or " the Poor Woman." Thus in the neighbourhood
of Eisenach a small sheaf is sometimes left standing on the
field for "the Poor Old Woman." ^ At Marksuhl, near
Eisenach, the puppet formed out of the last sheaf is itself
called " the Poor W^oman." At Alt Lest in Silesia the man
who binds the last sheaf is called the Beggar-man.^ In a
village near Roeskilde, in Zealand (Denmark), old-fashioned
peasants sometimes make up the last sheaf into a rude
puppet, which is called the Rye - beggar.'* In Southern
Schonen the sheaf which is bound last is called the Beggar ;
used to be much dreaded. On the Gebrciuche aus Thiirmgen (Vienna,
morning of St. John's Day he was wont 1878), p. 22 1. With the Binsen-
to walk through the fields with sickles scAneider compSiVe the BiVsc/inezder and
tied to his ankles cutting avenues in the Biberschneider (F. Panzer, Beiifag zur
corn as he walked. To detect him, deutschen Mythologie, Munich, 1848-
seven bundles of brushwood were 1855, ii. pp. 210 sq., §§ 372-378).
silently threshed with the flail on the ' W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
threshing-floor, and the stranger who Forschungen, pp. 47 sq.
appeared at the door of the barn dur- ^ w. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 48.
ing the threshing was the Rush-cutter. ^ W. Mannhardt, I.e.
See A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten and * Ibid. pp. 48 sq.
232
LIT Y ERSES
field for the
corn- spirit.
it is made bigger than the rest and is sometimes dressed
in clothes. In the district of Olmiitz the last sheaf is called
the Beggar ; it is given to an old woman, who must carry it
Some of home, limping on one foot.^ Sometimes a little of the crop
the corn j j^j-j. ^^ ^^ j^gj^ f^j. <^^ spirit, Under other names than
left on the ^
harvest- " the Poor Old Woman." Thus at Szagmanten, a village of
the Tilsit district, the last sheaf was left standing on the
field " for the Old Rye-woman." ^ In Neftenbach (Canton
of Zurich) the first three ears of corn reaped are thrown
away on the field " to satisfy the Corn-mother and to make
the next year's crop abundant." ^ At Kupferberg, in Bavaria,
some corn is left standing on the field when the rest has
been cut. Of this corn left standing they say that " it
belongs to the Old Woman," to whom it is dedicated in the
following words : —
" We give it to the Old Woman;
She shall keep it.
Next year may she be to us
As kind as this time she has beeti." ^
These words clearly shew that the Old Woman for whom
the corn is left on the field is not a real personage, poor and
hungry, but the mythical Old Woman who makes the corn
to grow. At Schiittarschen, in West Bohemia, after the
crop has been reaped, a few stalks are left standing and a
garland is attached to them. " That belongs to the Wood-
woman," they say, and offer a prayer. In this way the
Wood-woman, we are told, has enough to live on through
the winter and the corn will thrive the better next year.
The same thing is done for all the different kinds of corn-
crop.^ So in Thiaringen, when the after-grass {Grummet) is
being got in, a little heap is left lying on the field ; it belongs
to " the Little Wood-woman " in return for the blessing she
has bestowed.^ In the Frankenwald of Bavaria three hand-
fuls of flax were left on the field " for the Wood-woman." ^
^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische glaubeimdeutschenWestbdhnien{Vt2Lg\ie,
Forschungen, p. 49. I905)> p. 189.
2 Ji,i(^_ p. ■?^7 ^ ^' Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten ttnd
3 J, ., Gebrduche ans Thiiringeii (Vienna,
1878), p. 224, § 74.
* W. Mannhardt, Mythologische ' Bavaria, Lmides- und Volkskunde
Forschungen, pp. 337 sq. ,^,^ Konigreichs Bayern (Munich, 1860-
^ A. John, Sitte, Branch iind Volks- 1S67), iii. 343 sq.
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 233
At Lindau in Anhalt the reapers used to leave some stalks
standing in the last corner of the last field for " the Corn-
woman to eat." ^ In some parts of Silesia it was till lately
the custom to leave a few corn-stalks standing in the field,
" in order that the next harvest should not fail." ^ In Russia
it is customary to leave patches of unreaped corn in the fields
and to place bread and salt on the ground near them. " These
ears are eventually knotted together, and the ceremony is
called 'the plaiting of the beard of Volos,' and it is supposed
that after it has been performed no wizard or other evilly-
disposed person will be able to hurt the produce of the fields.
The unreaped patch is looked upon as tabooed ; and it is
believed that if any one meddles with it he will shrivel up,
and become twisted like the interwoven ears. Similar customs
are kept up in various parts of Russia. Near Kursk and
Voroneje, for instance, a patch of rye is usually left in honour
of the Prophet Elijah, and in another district one of oats is
consecrated to St. Nicholas. As it is well known that both
the Saint and the Prophet have succeeded to the place once
held in the estimation of the Russian people by Perun, it
seems probable that Volos really was, in ancient times, one
of the names of the thunder-god." ^ In the north-east of
Scotland a few stalks were sometimes left unreaped on the
field for the benefit of " the aul' man." "" Here " the aul'
man " is probably the equivalent of the harvest Old Man of
Germany.^ Among the Mohammedans of Zanzibar it is
customary at sowing a field to reserve a certain portion of it
for the guardian spirits, who at harvest are invited, to the
tuck of drum, to come and take their share ; tiny huts are
also built in which food is deposited for their use,^ In the
island of Nias, to prevent the depredations of wandering
spirits among the rice at harvest, a miniature field is dedicated
^ Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volks- of Kings, ii. 365.
kunde, vii. (1897) p. 154. 4 Rgv. Walter Gregor, Notes on the
2 P. Drechsler, Sitte, Branch, und Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland
VolksglaubeinSchlesien{l.€\^s\c,i()oy (London, 1881), p. 182.
1906), ii. 64, § 419. sou /c
3 W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the ' ^ee above, pp. 136 sgq.
Russian People, Second Edition ^ A. Germain, "Note zur Zanzibar
(London, 1872), pp. 251 sq. As to et la Cote Orientaled'Afrique,"^///Zj/'i«
Perun, the old Slavonic thunder-god, de la Soci^te de G^ographie{Vdins),Vhme
see The Magic Art and the Evolution Serie, xvi. (1868) p. 555.
234
LIT Y ERSES
Little fields
or gardens
cultivated
for spirits
or gods.
Hence
perhaps
we may
explain the
dedication
of sacred
fields and
the offering
of first-
fruits to
gods and
spirits.
to them and in it are sown all the plants that grow in the
real fields.^ The Hos, a Ewe tribe of negroes in Togoland,
observe a similar custom for a similar reason. At the entrance
to their yam-fields the traveller may see on both sides of the
path small mounds on which yams, stock-yams, beans, and
maize are planted and appear to flourish with more than
usual luxuriance. These little gardens, tended with peculiar
care, are dedicated to the " guardian gods " of the owner of
the land ; there he cultivates for their benefit the same
plants which he cultivates for his own use in the fields ;
and the notion is that the " guardian gods " will content
themselves with eating the fruits which grow in their little
private preserves and will not poach on the crops which are
destined for human use.^
These customs suggest that the little sacred rice-fields
on which the Kayans of Borneo perform the various
operations of husbandry in mimicry before they address
themselves to the real labours of the field,^ may be dedi-
cated to the spirits of the rice to compensate them for
the loss they sustain by allowing men to cultivate all
the rest of the land for their own benefit. Perhaps the
Rarian plain at Eleusis^ was a spiritual preserve of the
same kind set apart for the exclusive use of the corn-
goddesses Demeter and Persephone, It may even be that
the law which forbade the Hebrews to reap the corners and
gather the gleanings of the harvest-fields and to strip the
^ E. Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nias
(Milan, 1890), p. 593.
^ J. Spieth, Die Etve-Stdmme (Ber-
lin, 1906), p. 303. In the Central
Provinces of India " sometimes the
oldest man in the house cuts the first
five bundles of the crop and they are
afterwards left in the fields for the
birds to eat. And at the end of harvest
the last one or two sheaves are left
standing in the field and any one who
likes can cut and carry them away. In
some localities the last sheaves are left
standing in the field and are known as
barhoia, or the giver of increase. Then
all the labourers rush together at this
last patch of corn and tear it up by the
roots ; everybody seizes as much as he
can [and] keeps it, the master having
no share in this patch. After the bar-
hona has been torn up all the labourers
fall on their faces to the ground and
worship the field " (A. E. Nelson,
Central Provinces Gazetteers, Bilaspur
District, vol. A, 19 10, p. 75). This
quotation was kindly sent to me by
Mr. W. Crooke ; I have not seen the
original. It seems to shew that in the
Central Provinces the last corn is left
standing on the field as a portion for
the corn-spirit, and that he is believed
to be immanent in it ; hence the name
of " the giver of increase " bestowed on
it, and the eagerness with which other
people, though not the owner of the
land, seek to appropriate it.
3 See above, pp. 93 sq.
■* See above, pp. 36, 74-
VII KILLING THE CORN-SPIRIT 235
vines of their last grapes ^ was originally intended for the
benefit, not of the human poor, but of the poor spirits of
the corn and the vine, who had just been despoiled by the
reapers and the vintagers, and who, if some provision were
not made for their subsistence, would naturally die of hunger
before another year came round. In providing for their
wants the prudent husbandman was really consulting his
own interests ; for how could he expect to reap wheat and
barley and to gather grapes next year if he suffered the
spirits of the corn and of the vine to perish of famine in
the meantime ? This train of thought may possibly explain
the wide-spread custom of offering the first-fruits of the
crops to gods or spirits : ^ such offerings may have been
originally not so much an expression of gratitude for benefits
received as a means of enabling the benefactors to continue
their benefactions in time to come. Primitive man has
generally a shrewd eye to the main chance : he is more
prone to provide for the future than to sentimentalise over
the past.
Thus when the spirit of vegetation is conceived as Passing
a being who is robbed of his store and impoverished treated'^as
by the harvesters, it is natural that his representative the spirit
— the passing stranger — should upbraid them ; and it niadder-
is equally natural that they should seek to disable him roots.
from pursuing them and recapturing the stolen property.
Now, it is an old superstition that by easing nature on the
spot where a robbery is committed, the robbers secure
themselves, for a certain time, against interruption.^ Hence
when madder-diggers resort to this proceeding in presence
of the stranger whom they have caught and buried in the
field, we may infer that they consider themselves robbers
and him as the person robbed. Regarded as such, he must
be the natural owner of the madder-roots, that is, their
spirit or demon ; and this conception is carried out by
1 Leviticus, xix. 9 sq., xxiii. 22; Der deutsche Volksaberglaube'^ (Berlin,
Deuteronomy, xxiv. 19-21. 1869), p. 254, § 400; M. Toppen,
o „ , , Abeixlaube atis Mastiren"^ (Danzig,
2 See above, pp. 46 sq., 53 sqq., ^g^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^,5^^ j^ ^^f^
and below, vol. a. pp. 109 sqq. , fj"^ -t /ttt
, vv -y 11 and acted upon in Japan (L. Hearn,
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 'London,
Forschungen, pp. 49 sq. ; A. Wuttke, 1904, ii. 603).
236
LITYERSES
Killing
of the
personal
repre-
sentative
of the
corn-spirit.
burying him, like the madder-roots, in the ground.^ The
Greeks, it may be observed, were quite familiar with the
idea that a passing stranger may be a god. Homer says
that the gods in the likeness of foreigners roam up and
down cities.^ Once in Poso, a district of Celebes, when a new
missionary entered a house where a number of people were
gathered round a sick man, one of them addressed the new-
comer in these words : " Well, sir, as we had never seen
you before, and you came suddenly in, while we sat here by
ourselves, we thought it was a spirit." ^
Thus in these harvest-customs of modern Europe the
person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn is treated as
an embodiment of the corn-spirit by being wrapt up in
sheaves, killed in mimicry by agricultural implements, and
thrown into the water.^ These coincidences with the
Lityerses story seem to prove that the latter is a genuine
description of an old Phrygian harvest-custom. But since in
the modern parallels the killing of the personal representative
of the corn-spirit is necessarily omitted or at most enacted
only in mimicry, it is desirable to shew that in rude society
human beings have been commonly killed as an agricultural
ceremony to promote the fertility of the fields. The following
examples will make this plain.
Human
sacrifices
for the
crops in
South and
Central
America.
^ 3. Human Sacrifices for the Crops
The Indians of Guayaquil, in Ecuador, used to sacrifice
human blood and the hearts of men when they sowed their
fields.^ The people of Canar (now Cuenca in Ecuador) used
to sacrifice a hundred children annually at harvest. The
kings of Quito, the Incas of Peru, and for a long time the
Spaniards were unable to suppress the bloody rite.^ At a
* The explanation of the custom is
W. Mannhardt's {Mythologische For-
schtingen, p. 49).
2 Odyssey, xvii. 485 sqq. Compare
Plato, Sophist, p. 216 A.
^ A. C. Kruijt, " Mijne eerste
ervaringen te Poso," Mededeelingen
van wege het Nederlandsche Zendeling-
genootschap, xxxvi. (1892) p. 402.
* For throwing him into the water,
see p. 225.
^ Cieza de Leon, Travels, trans-
lated by C. R. Markham, p. 203
(Hakluyt Society, London, 1864).
** Juan de Velasco, Histoire du
Royaume de Quito, i. (Paris, 1840) pp.
121 sq. (Ternaux- Com pans, Voyages,
Relations et Mt^moires Originaux pottr
servir h F Histoii-e de la Dicouverte de
PAm^Hque, vol. xviii. ).
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 237
Mexican harvest-festival, when the first-fruits of the season
were offered to the sun, a criminal was placed between two
immense stones, balanced opposite each other, and was
crushed by them as they fell together. His remains were
buried, and a feast and dance followed. This sacrifice was
known as " the meeting of the stones." ^ " Tlaloc was
worshipped in Mexico as the god of the thunder and the
storm which precedes the fertilising rain ; elsewhere his wife
Xochiquetzal, who at Tlaxcallan was called Matlalcuey^ or
the Lady of the Blue Petticoats, shared these honours, and
it was to her that many countries in Central America
particularly paid their devotions. Every year, at the time
when the cobs of the still green and milky maize are about
to coagulate and ripen, they used to sacrifice to the goddess
four young girls, chosen among the noblest families of the
country ; they were decked out in festal attire, crowned with
flowers, and conveyed in rich palanquins to the brink of the
hallowed waters, where the sacrifice was to be offered.
The priests, clad in long floating robes, their heads encircled
with feather crowns, marched in front of the litters carrying
censers with burning incense. The town of Elopango,
celebrated for its temple, was near the lake of the same
name, the etymology of which refers to the sheaves of tender
maize {elotl, 'sheaf of tender maize'). It was dedicated to
the goddess Xochiquetzal, to whom the young victims were
offered by being hurled from the top of a rock into the
abyss. At the moment of consummating this inhuman rite,
the priests addressed themselves in turn to the four virgins
in order to banish the fear of death from their minds. They
drew for them a bright picture of the delights they were
about to enjoy in the company of the gods, and advised
them not to forget the earth which they had left behind, but
to entreat the divinity, to whom they despatched them, to
bless the forthcoming harvest." ^ We have seen that the
ancient Mexicans also sacrificed human beings at all the
1 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire ^ Brasseur de Bourbourg, "Aper9us
des Nations civilisies du Alexiqtte et d'un voyage dans les Etats de San-
de V Amiriqtie Centrale (Paris, 1857- Salvador et de Guatemala," Bulletin
1859), i. 274 ; H. H. Bancroft, Native de la Society de G^og}-apkie (Paris),
Races of the Pacific States (London, IVeme Serie, xiii. (1857) pp. 278
1875- 1876), ii. 340. sq.
238 LIT VERSES CHAP.
various stages in the growth of the maize, the age of the
victims corresponding to the age of the corn ; for they
sacrificed new-born babes at sowing, older children when
the grain had sprouted, and so on till it was fully ripe,
when they sacrificed old men.^ No doubt the corre-
spondence between the ages of the victims and the state
of the corn was supposed to enhance the efficacy of the
sacrifice.
Human The Pawnees annually sacrificed a human victim in
forthe^^ spring when they sowed their fields. The sacrifice was
crops believed to have been enjoined on them by the Morning
Pawnees.^^ Star, or by a certain bird which the Morning Star had sent
to them as its messenger. The bird was stuffed and pre-
served as a powerful talisman. They thought that an
omission of this sacrifice would be followed by the total
failure of the crops of maize, beans, and pumpkins. The
victim was a captive of either sex. He was clad in the
gayest and most costly attire, was fattened on the choicest
food, and carefully kept in ignorance of his doom. When
he was fat enough, they bound him to a cross in the presence
of the multitude, danced a solemn dance, then cleft his head
with a tomahawk and shot him with arrows. According to
one trader, the squaws then cut pieces of flesh from the
victim's body, with which they greased their hoes ; but this
was denied by another trader who had been present at the
ceremony. Immediately after the sacrifice the people pro-
ceeded to plant their fields, A particular account has been
preserved of the sacrifice of a Sioux girl by the Pawnees in
April 1837 or 1838. The girl was fourteen or fifteen years
old and had been kept for six months and well treated.
Two days before the sacrifice she was led from wigwam to
wigwam, accompanied by the whole council of chiefs and
warriors. At each lodge she received a small billet of wood
and a little paint, which she handed to the warrior next to
her. In this way she called at every wigwam, receiving at
each the same present of wood and paint. On the twenty-
second of April she was taken out to be sacrificed, attended
by the warriors, each of whom carried two pieces of wood
1 Herrera, quoted byA. Baslian, Z)/^ 1878), ii. 379 5?. See Adonis, Attis,
Culhir lander lies alten Amerika{^&r\m, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 33S sq.
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 239
which he had received from her hands. Her body having
been painted half red and half black, she was attached to a
sort of gibbet and roasted for some time over a slow fire, then
shot to death with arrows. The chief sacrificer next tore
out her heart and devoured it. While her flesh was still
warm it was cut in small pieces from the bones, put in little
baskets, and taken to a neighbouring corn-field. There the
head chief took a piece of the flesh from a basket and
squeezed a drop of blood upon the newly-deposited grains of
corn. His example was followed by the rest, till all the seed
had been sprinkled with the blood ; it was then covered up
with earth. According to one account the body of the victim
was reduced to a kind of paste, which was rubbed or sprinkled
not only on the maize but also on the potatoes, the beans,
and other seeds to fertilise them. By this sacrifice they
hoped to obtain plentiful crops.^
A West African queen used to sacrifice a man and Human
woman in the month of March. They were killed with for'the^^
spades and hoes, and their bodies buried in the middle of a crops in
field which had just been tilled.^ At Lagos in Guinea it
was the custom annually to impale a young girl alive soon
after the spring equinox in order to secure good crops.
Along with her were sacrificed sheep and goats, which, with
yams, heads of maize, and plantains, were hung on stakes on
each side of her. The victims were bred up for the purpose
in the king's seraglio, and their minds had been so powerfully
wrought upon by the fetish men that they went cheerfully to
1 'E.]ames, Account of an Exf edition of collecting wood took place on the
from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains morning of the sacrifice. Another
(London, 1823), ii. 80 sq. ; H. R. description of the sacrifice is given by
Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United Mr. G. B. Grinnellfrom the recollection
States (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. oi sxi e\e-vi'iiVi&&% (Pawnee Hero Stories
77 sqq. ; J. De Smet, in Annales de la ajui Folk-tales, New York, 1889, pp.
Propagation de la Foi, xi. (1838) pp. 362-369). According to this last
493 sq. ; id., in Annales de la Propaga- account the victim was shot with arrows
tion de la Foi, xv. (1843) pp. 277-279 ; and afterwards burnt. Before the body
id.. Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses, was consumed in the fire a man pulled
Nouvelle Edition (Paris and Brussels, out the arrows, cut open the breast of
1873), PP- 121 sqq. The accounts by the victim, and having smeared his face
Schoolcraft and De Smet of the sacrifice with the blood ran away as fast as he
of the Sioux girl are independent and could,
supplement each other. According to
De Smet, who wrote from the descrip- '^ J. B. Labat, Relation historiqjie
tions of four eye-witnesses, the pro- de V Ethiopie occidentale (Paris, 1732),
cession from hut to hut for the purpose i. 380.
Africa.
240 LIT VERSES chap.
their fate.^ A similar sacrifice used to be annually offered
at Benin, in Guinea.^ The Marimos, a Bechuana tribe,
sacrifice a human being for the crops. The victim chosen
is generally a short, stout man. He is seized by violence
or intoxicated and taken to the fields, where he is killed
amongst the wheat to serve as " seed " (so they phrase it).
After his blood has coagulated in the sun, it is burned along
with the frontal bone, the flesh attached to it, and the brain ;
the ashes are then scattered over the ground to fertilise it.
The rest of the body is eaten.^ The Wamegi of the Usagara
hills in German East Africa used to offer human sacrifices
of a peculiar kind once a year about the time of harvest,
which was also the time of sowing ; for the Wamegi have
two crops annually, one in September and one in February.
The festival was usually held in September or October.
The victim was a girl who had attained the age of puberty.
She was taken to a hill where the festival was to be
celebrated, and there she was crushed to death between two
branches.* The sacrifice was not performed in the fields,
and my informant could not ascertain its object, but we may
conjecture that it was to ensure good crops in the following
year.
Human The Bagobos of Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands,
forthe^^ offer a human sacrifice before they sow their rice. The victim
crops in the is a slave, who is hewn to pieces in the forest.^ The
Dine's^ natives of Bontoc, a province in the interior of Luzon,
one of the Philippine Islands, are passionate head-hunters.
Their principal seasons for head-hunting are the times
of planting and reaping the rice. In order that the
crop may turn out well, every farm must get at least one
human head at planting and one at sowing. The head-
hunters go out in twos or threes, lie in wait for the victim,
1 John Adams, Sketches taken during custom has probably long been obsolete.
Ten Voyages in Africa between the years * From information given me by
jySb and j8oo (London, N.D.), p. my friend the Rev. John Roscoe, who
25. resided for some time among the
2 P. Bouche, La Cote des Esclaves Wamegi and suppressed the sacrifice
(Paris, 1885), p. 132. in 1886.
3 T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, ^ F. Blumentritt, " Das Stromgebiet
Voyage (L exploration au Nord-est de des Rio Grande de Mindanao," Peter-
la Colonie du Cap de Bonne- Espirance manns Mitteilungen, xxxvii. (1891)
(Paris, 1842), pp. 117 sq. The p. no.
pmes.
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 241
whether man or woman, cut off his or her head, hands, and
feet, and bring them back in haste to the village, where they
are received with great rejoicings. The skulls are at first
exposed on the branches of two or three dead trees which
stand in an open space of every village surrounded by large
stones which serve as seats. The people then dance round
them and feast and get drunk. When the flesh has decayed
from the head, the man who cut it off takes it home and
preserves it as a relic, while his companions do the same
with the hands and the feet.^ Similar customs are observed
by the Apoyaos, another tribe in the interior of Luzon.^
The Wild Wa, an agricultural tribe on the north- Human
eastern frontier of Upper Burma, still hunt for human ^^^ jhe^^
heads as a means of promoting the welfare of the crops, crops
The Wa regards his skulls as a protection against the wild Wa^
powers of evil. " Without a skull his crops would fail ; of Burma.
without a skull his kine might die ; without a skull the
father and mother spirits would be shamed and might be
enraged ; if there were no protecting skull the other spirits,
who are all malignant, might gain entrance and kill the
inhabitants, or drink all the liquor." The Wa country is
a series of mountain ranges shelving rapidly down to narrow
valleys from two to five thousand feet deep. The villages
are all perched high on the slopes, some just under the
crest of the ridge, some lower down on a small projecting
spur of flat ground. Industrious cultivation has cleared
away the jungle, and the villages stand out conspicuously
in the landscape as yellowish-brown blotches on the hill-
sides. Each village is fortified by an earthen rampart so
thickly overgrown with cactuses and other shrubs as to be
impenetrable. The only entrance is through a narrow, low,
and winding tunnel, the floor of which, for additional
security, is thickly studded with pegs to wound the feet of
enemies who might attempt to force a way in. The Wa
depend for their subsistence mainly on their crops of
^ A. Schadenberg, " Beitrage zur ftir Etknologie, xx. i{
Kenntniss der im Innern Nordluzons - Schadenberg, in Verhandlungen
lebenden Stamme," Verhandlungen der der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropo-
Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropo- logie, Eth^tologie und Urgcschichte,
logic, Ethnologie und Urgcschichte, 1889, p. (681) (bound with Zeitschrift
1888, p. (39) (bound with Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, xxi. 1889).
PT. V. VOL. I R
242 LIT Y ERSES chap.
buckwheat, beans, and maize ; rice they cultivate only to
distil a strong spirituous liquor from it. They had need be
industrious, for no field can be reached without a climb up
or down the steep mountain-side. Sometimes the rice-fields
lie three thousand feet or more below the village, and they
require constant attention. But the chief crop raised by
the Wa is the poppy, from which they make opium. In
February and March the hill-tops for miles are white
with the blossom, and you may travel for days through
nothing but fields of poppies. Then, too, is the proper
season for head-hunting. It opens in March and lasts
through April. Parties of head-hunters at that time go
forth to prowl for human prey. As a rule they will not
behead people of a neighbouring village nor even of any
village on the same range of hills. To find victims they go
to the next range or at any rate to a distance, and the
farther the better, for the heads of strangers are preferred.
The reason is that the ghosts of strangers, being unfamiliar
with the country, are much less likely to stray away from
their skulls ; hence they make more vigilant sentinels than
the ghosts of people better acquainted with the neighbour-
hood, who are apt to go off duty without waiting for the
tedious formality of relieving guard. When head-hunters
return to a village with human heads, the rejoicing is
uproarious. Then the great drum is beaten frantically,
and its deep hollow boom resounding far and wide through
the hills announces to the neighbourhood the glad tidings of
murder successfully perpetrated. Then the barrels, or rather
the bamboos, of rice-spirit are tapped, and while the genial
stream flows and the women and children dance and sing
for glee, the men drink themselves blind and mad drunk.
The ghastly head, which forms the centre of all this
rejoicing, is first taken to the spirit-house, a small shed
which usually stands on the highest point of the village
site. There, wrapt in grass or leaves, it is hung up in
a basket to ripen and bleach. When all the flesh and
sinews have mouldered away and nothing remains but the
blanched and grinning skull, it is put to rest in the village
Golgotha. This is an avenue of huge old trees, whose inter-
lacing boughs form a verdant archway overhead and, with the
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 243
dense undergrowth, cast a deep shadow on the ground below.
Every village has such an avenue stretching along the hill-
side sometimes for a long distance, or even till it meets the
avenue of the neighbouring village. In the solemn gloom
of this verdurous canopy is the Place of Skulls. On one side
of the avenue stands a row of wooden posts, usually mere
trunks of trees with the bark peeled off, but sometimes
rudely carved and painted with designs in red and black.
A little below the top of each post is cut a niche, and in
front of the niche is a ledge. On this ledge the skull
is deposited, sometimes so that it is in full view of
passers-by in the avenue, sometimes so that it only grins
at them through a slit. Most villages count their skulls by
tens or twenties, but some of them have hundreds of these
trophies, especially when the avenue forms an unbroken
continuity of shade between the villages. The old skulls
ensure peace to the village, but at least one new one should
be taken every year, that the rice may grow green far down
in the depths of the valley, that the maize may tinge with
its golden hue the steep mountain-sides, and that the hill-
tops may be white for miles and miles with the bloom of
the poppy.^
The Shans of Indo-China still believe in the efficacy of Human
human sacrifice to procure a good harvest, though they act for'the'^^
on the belief less than some other tribes of this region, crops
Their practice now is to poison somebody at the state shans^of^
festival, which is generally held at some time between March indo-China
and May." Among the Lhota Naga, one of the many xagas and
savage tribes who inhabit the deep rugged labyrinthine glens "''^^^ '"^^^
which wind into the mountains from the rich valley of
Brahmapootra,^ it used to be a common custom to chop
off the heads, hands, and feet of people they met with,
and then to stick up the severed extremities in their
fields to ensure a good crop of grain. They bore no
^ (Sir) J. G. Scott and J. P. of the Anthropological Institute, xxvi.
Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper (1897) p. 24.
Buri/ta and the Sha?t States {Rangoon, '^ For a general description of the
1 900- 1 901), Part i. vol. i. pp. 493- country and the tribes see L. A.
509. Waddell, " The Tribes of the Brahma-
2 Col. R. G. Woodthorpe, " Some putra \a.\\ty," Journal of the Asiatic
Account of the Shans and Hill Tribes Society of Bengal, Ixix. Part iii.
of the States on the Mekong, "y(7«r«a/ (Calcutta, 1901), pp. 1-127.
244
LITYERSES
ill-will whatever to the persons upon whom they operated
in this unceremonious fashion. Once they flayed a
boy alive, carved him in pieces, and distributed the flesh
among all the villagers, who put it into their corn-bins to
avert bad luck and ensure plentiful crops of grain. The
Angami, another tribe of the same region, used also to relieve
casual passers-by of their heads, hands, and feet, with the
same excellent intention.^ The hill tribe Kudulu, near
Vizagapatam in the Madras Presidency, offered human
sacrifices to the god Jankari for the purpose of obtaining
good crops. The ceremony was generally performed on the
Sunday before or after the Pongal feast. For the most part
the victim was purchased, and until the time for the sacrifice
came he was free to wander about the village, to eat and
drink what he liked, and even to lie with any woman he
met. On the appointed day he was carried before the
idol drunk ; and when one of the villagers had cut a hole
in his stomach and smeared the blood on the idol, the
crowds from the neighbouring villages rushed upon him
and hacked him to pieces. All who were fortunate enough
to secure morsels of his flesh carried them away and pre-
sented them to their village idols." The Gonds of India, a
Dravidian race, kidnapped Brahman boys, and kept them as
victims to be sacrificed on various occasions. At sowing and
reaping, after a triumphal procession, one of the lads was
slain by being punctured with a poisoned arrow. His blood
was then sprinkled over the ploughed field or the ripe crop,
and his flesh was devoured.^ The Oraons or Uraons of
Chota Nagpur worship a goddess called Anna Kuari, who
can give good crops and make a man rich, but to induce her
to do so it is necessary to offer human sacrifices. In spite
of the vigilance of the British Government these sacrifices are
said to be still secretly perpetrated. The victims are poor
waifs and strays whose disappearance attracts no notice.
April and May are the months when the catchpoles are out
on the prowl. At that time strangers will not go about the
^ Miss G. M. Godden, " Naga and ^ North Indian Notes and Queries,
other Frontier Tribes of North-Eastern i. p. 4, § 15 (April 1891).
India," Journal of the Anthropological ^ Punjab Notes and Queries, ii. pp.
Institute, xxvii. (1898) pp. 9 sq., l%sq. 127 sq., § 721 (May 1885).
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 245
country alone, and parents will not let their children enter
the jungle or herd the cattle. When a catchpole has found
a victim, he cuts his throat and carries away the upper
part of the ring finger and the nose. The goddess takes up
her abode in the house of any man who has offered her a
sacrifice, and from that time his fields yield a double harvest.
The form she assumes in the house is that of a small child.
When the householder brings in his unhusked rice, he takes
the goddess and rolls her over the heap to double its size.
But she soon grows restless and can only be pacified with
the blood of fresh human victims.^
But the best known case of human sacrifices, systematic- Human
ally offered to ensure good crops, is supplied by the fQr?he^^
Khonds or Kandhs, another Dravidian race in Bengal. Our crops
knowledge of them is derived from the accounts written by Khonls. ^
British officers who, about the middle of the nineteenth
century, were engaged in putting them down.^ The sacrifices
were offered to the Earth Goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera
Pennu, and were believed to ensure good crops and immunity
from all disease and accidents. In particular, they were
considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the
Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red
colour without the shedding of blood.^ The victim or Meriah,
as he was called, was acceptable to the goddess only if he
had been purchased, or had been born a victim — that is, the
son of a victim father, or had been devoted as a child
by his father or guardian. Khonds in distress often
sold their children for victims, " considering the beatifica-
tion of their souls certain, and their death, for the benefit of
mankind, the most honourable possible." A man of the
Panua tribe was once seen to load a Khond with curses,
and finally to spit in his face, because the Khond had sold
for a victim his own child, whom the Panua had wished to
1 Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., "Religion Compare Mgr. Neyret, Bishop of Viza-
and Customs of the Uraons," Memoirs gapatam, in Annates de la Propagation
of ike Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i. de la Poi, xxiii. (185 1) pp. 402-404 ;
No. 9 (Calcutta, 1906), pp. 141 sq. E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes on
2 Major S. C. Macpherson, Me- Southern India (Madras, 1906), pp.
morials of Service in India (London, 510-519; id., Castes and Tribes of
1865), pp. I13-131 ; Major-General Southern India (Madras, 1909), iii.
John Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khon- 371-385.
distan (London, 1864), pp. 52-58, etc. ^ j_ Campbell, op. cit. p. 56.
246 LIT VERSES chap.
marry. A party of Khonds, who saw this, immediately
pressed forward to comfort the seller of his child, saying,
" Your child has died that all the world may live, and the
Earth Goddess herself will wipe that spittle from your face." ^
The victims were often kept for years before they were
sacrificed. Being regarded as consecrated beings, they were
treated with extreme affection, mingled with deference, and
were welcomed wherever they went. A Meriah youth, on
attaining maturity, was generally given a wife, who was her-
self usually a Meriah or victim ; and with her he received
a portion of land and farm-stock. Their offspring were
also victims. Human sacrifices were offered to the Earth
Goddess by tribes, branches of tribes, or villages, both at
periodical festivals and on extraordinary occasions. The
periodical sacrifices were generally so arranged by tribes and
divisions of tribes that each head of a family was enabled, at
least once a year, to procure a shred of flesh for his fields,
generally about the time when his chief crop was laid
down."
Cere- The mode of performing these tribal sacrifices was as
"^°"'^^ follows. Ten or twelve days before the sacrifice, the victim
preliminary •' '
to the was devoted by cutting off his hair, which, until then, had
sacri ce. ]^qq^ kept unshom. Crowds of men and women assembled
to witness the sacrifice ; none might be excluded, since the
sacrifice was declared to be for all mankind. It was pre-
ceded by several days of wild revelry and gross debauchery.^
On the day before the sacrifice the victim, dressed in a new
garment, was led forth from the village in solemn procession,
with music and dancing, to the Meriah grove, a clump of
high forest trees standing a little way from the village and
untouched by the axe. There they tied him to a post, which
was sometimes placed between two plants of the sankissar
shrub. He was then anointed with oil, ghee, and turmeric,
and adorned with flowers ; and " a species of reverence,
which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration," was paid
to him throughout the day. A great struggle now arose to
obtain the smallest relic from his person ; a particle of the
' S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. pp. W] sq.', J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 112.
'IS-*'?- ^ S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. pp.
^ S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. pp. 117 sq.
vn HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 247
turmeric paste with which he was smeared, or a drop of his
spittle, was esteemed of sovereign virtue, especially by the
women.^ The crowd danced round the post to music, and,
addressing the earth, said, " O God, we offer this sacrifice to
you ; give us good crops, seasons, and health " ; then speak-
ing to the victim they said, " We bought you with a price,
and did not seize you ; now we sacrifice you according to
custom, and no sin rests with us." ^
On the last morning the orgies, which had been scarcely Consum-
interrupted during the night, were resumed, and continued "^^the"
till noon, when they ceased, and the assembly proceeded to sacrifice.
consummate the sacrifice. The victim was again anointed
with oil, and each person touched the anointed part, and
wiped the oil on his own head. In some places they took
the victim in procession round the village, from door to door,
where some plucked hair from his head, and others begged
for a drop of his spittle, with which they anointed their
heads.^ As the victim might not be bound nor make any
show of resistance, the bones of his arms and, if necessary,
his legs were broken ; but often this precaution was rendered
unnecessary by stupefying him with opium.^ The mode of
putting him to death varied in different places. One of the
commonest modes seems to have been strangulation, or
squeezing to death. The branch of a green tree was cleft
several feet down the middle ; the victim's neck (in other
places, his chest) was inserted in the cleft, which the priest,
aided by his assistants, strove with all his force to close.^
Then he wounded the victim slightly with his axe, whereupon
the crowd rushed at the wretch and hewed the flesh from the
bones, leaving the head and bowels untouched. Sometimes
he was cut up alive.® In Chinna Kimedy he was dragged
along the fields, surrounded by the crowd, who, avoiding his
head and intestines, hacked the flesh from his body with
their knives till he died." Another very common mode of
1 S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 118. Campbell mentions two strong planks
2 J. Campbell, op. cit. pp. 54 sq. o' bamboos (p. 57) or a slit bamboo
3 J. Campbell, op. cit. pp. 55, 112. ^^ 6 j^^J^ampbell, op. cit. pp. 56, 58,
* S. C. Macpherson, op. ctt. p. x-zo.
119; J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 113. 7 e. T. Dalton, Descriptive Ethno-
^ S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 127. logy of Bengal {Q'zXcwXi'x, 1872), p. 288,
Instead of the branch of a green tree, quoting Colonel Campbell's Report.
fields.
248 LIT VERSES CHAP.
sacrifice in the same district was to fasten the victim to the
proboscis of a wooden elephant, which revolved on a stout
post, and, as it whirled round, the crowd cut the flesh from
the victim while life remained. In some villages Major
Campbell found as many as fourteen of these wooden
elephants, which had been used at sacrifices.-^ In one dis-
trict the victim was put to death slowly by fire. A low
stage was formed, sloping on either side like a roof; upon it
they laid the victim, his limbs wound round with cords to
confine his struggles. Fires were then lighted and hot
brands applied, to make him roll up and down the slopes of
the stage as long as possible ; for the more tears he shed the
more abundant would be the supply of rain. Next day the
body was cut to pieces.^
Flesh of The flesh cut from the victim was instantly taken home
the victim ^^ ^^ pcrsons who had been deputed by each village to
fertilise the bring it. To secure its rapid arrival, it was sometimes
forwarded by relays of men, and conveyed with postal fleet-
ness fifty or sixty miles.^ In each village all who stayed at
home fasted rigidly until the flesh arrived. The bearer
deposited it in the place of public assembly, where it was
received by the priest and the heads of families. The priest
divided it into two portions, one of which he offered to the
Earth Goddess by burying it in a hole in the ground with
his back turned, and without looking. Then each man
added a little earth to bury it, and the priest poured water
on the spot from a hill gourd. The other portion of flesh
he divided into as many shares as there were heads of
houses present. Each head of a house rolled his shred of
flesh in leaves, and buried it in his favourite field, placing it
in the earth behind his back without looking.* In some
* J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 126. The omen of rain (B. de Sahagun, Histoire
elephant represented the Earth God- generate des Choses de la No'uvelle Es-
dess herself, who was here conceived pagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R.
in elephant-form (Campbell, «>/. «V. pp. Simeon, Paris, 1880, bk. ii. ch. 20,
51,126). In the iiill tracts of Goomsur p. 86).
she was represented in peacock-form, , ^.T.Yiz^Kox,, Descriptive Ethnology^
and the post to which the victim was ,f j^ i ^88, referring to Colonel
bound bore the effigy of a peacock Campbell's .^./<7r/.
(Campbell, op. ctt. p. 54). ^
2 S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 130. * S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 129.
In Mexico also the tears of the human Compare J. Campbell, op. cit. pp. 55,
victims were sometimes regarded as an 58, 113, 121, 187.
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 249
places each man carried his portion of flesh to the stream
which watered his fields, and there hung it on a pole.^ For
three days thereafter no house was swept ; and, in one
district, strict silence was observed, no fire might be given
out, no wood cut, and no strangers received. The remains
of the human victim (namely, the head, bowels, and bones)
were watched by strong parties the night after the sacrifice ;
and next morning they were burned, along with a whole
sheep, on a funeral pile. The ashes were scattered over
the fields, laid as paste over the houses and granaries, or
mixed with the new corn to preserve it from insects.^
Sometimes, however, the head and bones were buried, not
burnt.^ After the suppression of the human sacrifices, in-
ferior victims were substituted in some places ; for instance,
in the capital of Chinna Kimedy a goat took the place of
a human victim.^ Others sacrifice a buffalo. They tie it
to a wooden post in a sacred grove, dance wildly round it
with brandished knives, then, falling on the living animal,
hack it to shreds and tatters in a few minutes, fighting and
struggling with each other for every particle of flesh. As
soon as a man has secured a piece he makes ofl" with it at
full speed to bury it in his fields, according to ancient
custom, before the sun has set, and as some of them have far
to go they must run very fast. All the women throw clods
of earth at the rapidly retreating figures of the men, some of
them taking very good aim. Soon the sacred grove, so
lately a scene of tumult, is silent and deserted except for a
few people who remain to guard all that is left of the buffalo,
to wit, the head, the bones, and the stomach, which are
burned with ceremony at the foot of the stake.'^
In these Khond sacrifices the Meriahs are represented in these
by our authorities as victims ofiered to propitiate the Earth sacrifices
Goddess. But from the treatment of the victims both the human
before and after death it appears that the custom cannot appear to
be explained as merely a propitiatory sacrifice. A part of have been
regarded as
the flesh certainly was offered to the Earth Goddess, but the divine.
1 J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 1S2. * J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 187.
2 S. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p,
128 ; E. T. Dalton, Descriptive Eth- * E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of
nology of Bengal, p. 288. Soidhern India (Madras, 1909), iii.
3 J. Campbell, op. cit. pp. 55, 182. 381-385.
250 LIT Y ERSES chap.
rest was buried by each householder in his fields, and the
ashes of the other parts of the body were scattered over the
fields, laid as paste on the granaries, or mixed with the new
corn. These latter customs imply that to the body of the
Meriah there was ascribed a direct or intrinsic power of
making the crops to grow, quite independent of the indirect
efficacy which it might have as an offering to secure the
good-will of the deity. In other words, the flesh and ashes
of the victim were believed to be endowed with a magical or
physical power of fertilising the land. The same intrinsic
power was ascribed to the blood and tears of the Meriah,
his blood causing the redness of the turmeric and his tears
producing rain ; for it can hardly be doubted that, originally
at least, the tears were supposed to bring down the rain, not
merely to prognosticate it. Similarly the custom of pouring
water on the buried flesh of the Meriah was no doubt a rain-
charm. Again, magical power as an attribute of the Meriah
appears in the sovereign virtue believed to reside in any-
thing that came from his person, as his hair or spittle. The
ascription of such power to the Meriah indicates that he was
much more than a mere man sacrificed to propitiate a deity.
Once more, the extreme reverence paid him points to the
same conclusion. Major Campbell speaks of the Meriah as
" being regarded as something more than mortal," ^ and
Major Macpherson says, " A species of reverence, which it is
not easy to distinguish from adoration, is paid to him." ^ In
short, the Meriah seems to have been regarded as divine.
As such, he may originally have represented the Earth
Goddess or, perhaps, a deity of vegetation ; though in later
times he came to be regarded rather as a victim offered to a
deity than as himself an incarnate god. This later view of
the Meriah as a victim rather than a divinity may perhaps
have received undue emphasis from the European writers
who have described the Khond religion. Habituated to the
later idea of sacrifice as an offering made to a god for the
purpose of conciliating his favour, European observers are
apt to interpret all religious slaughter in this sense, and to
suppose that wherever such slaughter takes place, there must
necessarily be a deity to whom the carnage is believed by
^ J. Campbell, op. cit. p. 112. 23. C. Macpherson, op. cit. p. 118.
VII HUMAN SACRIFICES FOR THE CROPS 251
the slayers to be acceptable. Thus their preconceived ideas
may unconsciously colour and warp their descriptions of
savage rites.
The same custom of killing the representative of a god, Traces of
of which strong traces appear in the Khond sacrifices, may ficadon"f
perhaps be detected in some of the other human sacrifices the human
described above. Thus the ashes of the slaughtered Marimo the'^cTin
were scattered over the fields ; the blood of the Brahman other
lad was put on the crop and field ; the flesh of the slain
Naga was stowed in the corn-bin ; and the blood of the
Sioux girl was allowed to trickle on the seed.^ Again, the
identification of the victim with the corn, in other words,
the view that he is an embodiment or spirit of the corn, is
brought out in the pains which seem to be taken to secure
a physical correspondence between him and the natural
object which he embodies or represents. Thus the Mexicans
killed young victims for the young corn and old ones for the
ripe corn ; the Marimos sacrifice, as " seed," a short, fat man,
the shortness of his stature corresponding to that of the
young corn, his fatness to the condition which it is desired
that the crops may attain ; and the Pawnees fattened their
victims probably with the same view. Again, the identi-
fication of the victim with the corn comes out in the African
custom of killing him with spades and hoes, and the Mexican
custom of grinding him, like corn, between two stones.
One more point in these savage customs deserves to be
noted. The Pawnee chief devoured the heart of the Sioux
girl, and the Marimos and Gonds ate the victim's flesh. If,
as we suppose, the victim was regarded as divine, it follows
that in eating his flesh his worshippers believed themselves
to be partaking of the body of their god.
8 4. The Corn-spirit slain tn his Human Representatives
The barbarous rites just described offer analogies to the Analogy
harvest customs of Europe. Thus the fertilising virtue barbarous
ascribed to the corn-spirit is shewn equally in the savage "tes to the
custom of mixing the victim's blood or ashes with the seed- customs of
corn and the European custom of mixing the grain from Europe.
' Above, pp. 239, 240, 244.
252 LITYERSES chap.
the last sheaf with the young corn in spring.-^ Again, the
identification of the person with the corn appears alike in
the savage custom of adapting the age and stature of the
victim to the age and stature, whether actual or expected, of
the crop ; in the Scotch and Styrian rules that when the corn-
spirit is conceived as the Maiden the last corn shall be cut
by a young maiden, but when it is conceived as the Corn-
mother it shall be cut by an old woman ; " in the Lothringian
warning given to old women to save themselves when the
Old Woman is being killed, that is, when the last corn
is being threshed ; ^ and in the Tyrolese expectation that
if the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is tall,
the next year's corn will be tall also.* Further, the same
identification is implied in the savage custom of killing the
representative of the corn-spirit with hoes or spades or by
grinding him between stones, and in the European custom of
pretending to kill him with the scythe or the flail. Once
more the Khond custom of pouring water on the buried flesh
of the victim is parallel to the European customs of pouring
water on the personal representative of the corn-spirit or
plunging him into a stream.^ Both the Khond and the
European customs are rain-charms.
Human To return now to the Lityerses story. It has been
trve^oTthe shewn that in rude society human beings have been com-
corn-spirit monly killed to promote the growth of the crops. There is
harvest- therefore no improbability in the supposition that they may
field. once have been killed for a like purpose in Phrygia and
Europe ; and when Phrygian legend and European folk-
custom, closely agreeing with each other, point to the con-
clusion that men were so slain, we are bound, provisionally
at least, to accept the conclusion. Further, both the Lityerses
story and European harvest-customs agree in indicating that
the victim was put to death as a representative of the corn-
spirit, and this indication is in harmony with the view which
some savages appear to take of the victim slain to make the
crops flourish. On the whole, then, we may fairly suppose
that both in Phrygia and in Europe the representative of
1 Above, p. 134. * Above, p. 224.
2 Above, pp. 134, 157 m- . ' ^^r^\l 7°'7:^^^^^ references
) t-f jt! 0/ // vciTvQX.^^; Adonis, Attis,Onrts,'$>^zo'!\A
3 Above, p. 223. Edition, pp. 1 95- 197.
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 253
the corn-spirit was annually killed upon the harvest-field.
Grounds have been already shewn for believing that similarly
in Europe the representative of the tree-spirit was annually
slain. The proofs of these two remarkable and closely
analogous customs are entirely independent of each other.
Their coincidence seems to furnish fresh presumption in
favour of both.
To the question, How was the representative of the corn- The victim
spirit chosen ? one answer has been already Sfiven. Both ^^^^° repre-
1 T • 1 T- r 11 sen ted the
the Lityerses story and European folk-custom shew that corn-spirit
passing strangers were regarded as manifestations of the ^^^ ^^^^
corn-spirit escaping from the cut or threshed corn, and as passing
such were seized and slain. But this is not the only answer f^''^"^'^'' °'"
-' the reaper,
which the evidence suggests. According to the Phrygian binder, or
legend the victims of Lityerses were not simply passing of The '^'^
strangers, but persons whom he had vanquished in a reap- last corn.
ing contest and afterwards wrapt up in corn-sheaves and
beheaded.^ This suggests that the representative of the
corn-spirit may have been selected by means of a com-
petition on the harvest-field, in which the vanquished
competitor was compelled to accept the fatal honour.
The supposition is countenanced by European harvest-
customs. We have seen that in Europe there is sometimes
a contest amongst the reapers to avoid being last, and that
the person who is vanquished in this competition, that is,
who cuts the last corn, is often roughly handled. It is true
we have not found that a pretence is made of killing him ;
but on the other hand we have found that a pretence is
made of killing the man who gives the last stroke at thresh-
ing, that is, who is vanquished in the threshing contest.^
Now, since it is in the character of representative of the
corn -spirit that the thresher of the last corn is slain in
mimicry, and since the same representative character attaches
(as we have seen) to the cutter and binder as well as to the
thresher of the last corn, and since the same repugnance is
evinced by harvesters to be last in any one of these labours,
we may conjecture that a pretence has been commonly made
of killing the reaper and binder as well as the thresher of the
last corn, and that in ancient times this killing was actually
1 See above, p. 217. - Above, p. 224.
254
LIT VERSES
Perhaps
the victim
annually
sacrificed
in the
character
of the
corn-spirit
may have
been the
king
himself.
carried out. This conjecture is corroborated by the common
superstition that whoever cuts the last corn must die soon.^
Sometimes it is thought that the person who binds the last
sheaf on the field will die in the course of next year.^ The
reason for fixing on the reaper, binder, or thresher of the
last corn as the representative of the corn-spirit may be this.
The corn-spirit is supposed to lurk as long as he can in the
corn, retreating before the reapers, the binders, and the
threshers at their work. But when he is forcibly expelled
from his refuge in the last corn cut or the last sheaf bound
or the last grain threshed, he necessarily assumes some other
form than that of the corn-stalks which had hitherto been his
garment or body. And what form can the expelled corn-
spirit assume more naturally than that of the person who
stands nearest to the corn from which he (the corn-spirit)
has just been expelled ? But the person in question is
necessarily the reaper, binder, or thresher of the last corn.
He or she, therefore, is seized and treated as the corn-spirit
himself
Thus the person who was killed on the harvest-field as
the representative of the corn-spirit may have been either
a passing stranger or the harvester who was last at reaping,
binding, or threshing. But there is a third possibility, to
which ancient legend and modern folk-custom alike point.
Lityerses not only put strangers to death ; he was himself
slain, and apparently in the same way as he had slain others,
namely, by being wrapt in a corn-sheaf, beheaded, and cast
into the river ; and it is implied that this happened to
Lityerces on his own land.^ Similarly in modern harvest-
customs the pretence of killing appears to be carried out
quite as often on the person of the master (farmer or squire)
as on that of strangers.^ Now when we remember that
Lityerses was said to have been a son of the King of
Phrygia, and that in one account he is himself called a king,
and when we combine with this the tradition that he was
put to death, apparently as a representative of the corn-
spirit, we are led to conjecture that we have here another
^ 'W.yi.zx\n\\:i.rdi,DieA'oniddi)ioncn, ^ Above, p. 217. It is not ex-
p. 5- pressly said that lie was wrapt in a
2 H. Pfannenschmid, Germanische sheaf.
Eifttefeste (Hanover, 1878), p. 98. ^ Above, pp. 225 sq., 229 sq.
vji CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 255
trace of the custom of annually slaying one of those divine
or priestly kings who are known to have held ghostly sway
in many parts of Western Asia and particularly in Phrygia.
The custom appears, as we have seen/ to have been so far
modified in places that the king's son was slain in the king's
stead. Of the custom thus modified the story of Lityerses
would be, in one version at least, a reminiscence.
Turning now to the relation of the Phrygian Lityerses Relation of
to the Phrygian Attis, it may be remembered that at Pessinus J^' auTs*^^
— the seat of a priestly kingship — the high-priest appears both may
to have been annually slain in the character of Attis, a god origtnanT
of vegetation, and that Attis was described by an ancient corn-
authority as " a reaped ear of corn." ^ Thus Attis, as an the"on'e°a
embodiment of the corn-spirit, annually slain in the person corn-spirit
of his representative, might be thought to be ultimately other a
identical with Lityerses, the latter being simply the rustic tree-spirit.
prototype out of which the state religion of Attis was
developed. It may have been so ; but, on the other hand,
the analogy of European folk-custom warns us that amongst
the same people two distinct deities of vegetation may have
their separate personal representatives, both of whom are
slain in the character of gods at different times of the year.
For in Europe, as we have seen, it appears that one man
was commonly slain in the character of the tree-spirit in
spring, and another in the character of the corn-spirit in
autumn. It may have been so in Phrygia also. Attis was
especially a tree-god, and his connexion with corn may have
been only such an extension of the power of a tree-spirit as
is indicated in customs like the Harvest-May.^ Again, the
representative of Attis appears to have been slain in spring ;
whereas Lityerses must have been slain in summer or
autumn, according to the time of the harvest in Phrygia.^
On the whole, then, while we are not justified in regarding
Lityerses as the prototype of Attis, the two may be regarded
as parallel products of the same religious idea, and may have
stood to each other as in Europe the Old Man of harvest
^ See The Dying God, pp. 160 sqq. ■* I do not know when the corn is
^ See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second reaped in Phrygia ; but the high upland
Edition, pp. 231 sqq., 239 sq. character of the country makes it likely
^ See The Magic Art and the Evolit- that harvest is later there than on the
tion of Kings, ii. 47 sqq. coasts of the Mediterranean.
256 LIT VERSES chap.
stands to the Wild Man, the Leaf Man, and so forth, of
Human Spring. Both were spirits or deities of vegetation, and the
representa- personal representatives of both were annually slain. But
ofLityerses whereas the Attis worship became elevated into the dignity
and Attis ^f ^ State religion and spread to Italy, the rites of Lityerses
sia?n.^ ' seem never to have passed the limits of their native Phrygia,
and always retained their character of rustic ceremonies per-
formed by peasants on the harvest-field. At most a few
villages may have clubbed together, as amongst the Khonds,
to procure a human victim to be slain as representative of the
corn-spirit for their common benefit. Such victims may have
been drawn from the families of priestly kings or kinglets,
which would account for the legendary character of Lityerses
as the son of a Phrygian king or as himself a king. When
villages did not so club together, each village or farm may
have procured its own representative of the corn-spirit by
dooming to death either a passing stranger or the harvester
who cut, bound, or threshed the last sheaf. Perhaps in the
olden time the practice of head-hunting as a means of pro-
moting the growth of the corn may have been as common
among the rude inhabitants of Europe and Western Asia as
it still is, or was till lately, among the primitive agricultural
' tribes of Assam, Burma, the Philippine Islands, and the
Indian Archipelago.^ It is hardly necessary to add that in
Phrygia, as in Europe, the old barbarous custom of killing
a man on the harvest-field or the threshing-floor had doubt-
less passed into a mere pretence long before the classical era,
1 See above, pp. 240 sqq. ; and Frontier Tribes of North-East India,"
Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, Journal of the Ajithropological Institute,
pp. 247-249. As to head-hunting in xxvii. (1898) pp. 12-17. It niust not,
British Borneo see H. L. Roth, The however, be thought that among these
Natives of Saraiuak and British North tribes the custom of procuring human
Bortteo (LonAon, 1896), ii. i/^O sqq.; in heads is practised merely as a means
Central Celebes, see A. C. Kruijt, to ensure the growth of the crops ; it is
" Het koppensnellen der Toradja's van apparently supposed to exert a salutary
Midden-Celebes, en zijne Beteekenis," influence on the whole life of the people
Verslagen en Mededeelingen der konin- by providing them with guardian spirits
klijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, in the shape of the ghosts of the men
Afdeelung Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, to whom in their lifetime the heads
iii. part 2 (Amsterdam, 1899), pp. 147- belonged. The Scythians of Central
229 ; among the Igorot of Bontoc in Europe in antiquity set great store on
Luzon, see A. E. Jenks, The Bontoc the heads of the enemies whom they
Igorot (Manilla, 1 905), pp. 172 sqq. ; had slain in war. See Herodotus,
among the Naga tribes of Assam, see iv. 64 sq.
Miss G. M. Godden, " Naga and other
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 257
and was probably regarded by the reapers and threshers
themselves as no more than a rough jest which the license
of a harvest-home permitted them to play off on a passing
stranger, a comrade, or even on their master himself.^
I have dwelt on the Lityerses song at length because it similarity
affords so many points of comparison with European and githy^nian
savage folk-custom. The other harvest songs of Western Bormus
Asia and Egypt, to which attention has been called above,^ Phrygian
may now be dismissed much more briefly. The similarity Attis.
of the Bithynian Bormus ^ to the Phrygian Lityerses helps to
bear out the interpretation which has been given of the
latter. Bormus, whose death or rather disappearance was
annually mourned by the reapers in a plaintive song, was,
like Lityerses, a king's son or at least the son of a wealthy
and distinguished man. The reapers whom he watched
were at work on his own fields, and he disappeared in going
to fetch water for them ; according to one version of the
story he was carried off by the nymphs, doubtless the
nymphs of the spring or pool or river whither he went to
draw water.* Viewed in the light of the Lityerses story
and of European folk-custom, this disappearance of Bormus
may be a reminiscence of the custom of binding the
farmer himself in a corn-sheaf and throwing him into the
water. The mournful strain which the reapers sang was
probably a lamentation over the death of the corn-spirit,
slain either in the cut corn or in the person of a human
representative ; and the call which they addressed to him
may have been a prayer that he might return in fresh vigour
next year.
The Phoenician Linus song was sung at the vintage, at The
least in the west of Asia Minor, as we learn from Homer ; Linur^ong
and this, combined with the legend of Syleus, suggests that at the
in ancient times passing strangers were handled by vintagers ° '
and vine-diggers in much the same way as they are said to
have been handled by the reaper Lityerses. The Lydian
1 There are traces in Greece itself of Greek States, ii. (Oxford, 1S96) p. 455 ;
an old custom of sacrificing human and The Dying God, pp. 161 iq.
victims to promote the fertility of the 2 Above pp. 215 so.
earth. See Pausanias, vii. 19. 3 j^.
compared with vii. 20. i ; id., viii. Above, p. 216.
53. 3 ; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the * Hesychius, s.v. HQpnoi'.
PT. V. VOL. I S
258 LIT VERSES CHAP.
Syleus, so ran the legend, compelled passers-by to dig for
him in his vineyard, till Hercules came and killed him and
dug up his vines by the roots.^ This seems to be the outline
of a legend like that of Lityerses ; but neither ancient writers
nor modern folk-custom enable us to fill in the details.^
But, further, the Linus song was probably sung also by
Phoenician reapers, for Herodotus compares it to the
Maneros song, which, as we have seen, was a lament raised
Linus by Egyptian reapers over the cut corn. Further, Linus was
identified identified with Adonis, and Adonis has some claims to be
Adonis, regarded as especially a corn-deity.^ Thus the Linus
who may lament, as sung at harvest, would be identical with the
have been ' °
annually Adonis lament ; each would be the lamentation raised by
represented j.ga,pers over the dead spirit of the corn. But whereas Adonis,
human like Attis, grew into a stately figure of mythology, adored
victim. ^^^ mourned in splendid cities far beyond the limits of his
Phoenician home, Linus appears to have remained a simple
ditty sung by reapers and vintagers among the corn-sheaves
and the vines. The analogy of Lityerses and of folk-custom,
both European and savage, suggests that in Phoenicia the
slain corn-spirit — the dead Adonis — may formerly have
been represented by a human victim ; and this suggestion
is possibly supported by the Harran legend that Tammuz
(Adonis) was slain by his cruel lord, who ground his bones
in a mill and scattered them to the wind. For in Mexico,
as we have seen, the human victim at harvest was crushed be-
tween two stones ; and both in Africa and India the ashes or
other remains of the victim were scattered over the fields.* But
the Harran legend may be only a mythical way of express-
ing the grinding of corn in the mill and the scattering of the
seed. It seems worth suggesting that the mock king who was
annually killed at the Babylonian festival of the Sacaea on
the sixteenth day of the month Lous may have represented
Tammuz himself. For the historian Berosus, who records
the festival and its date, probably used the Macedonian
1 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 6. 3. Forschiuigen, pp. 53 sq.
2 The scurrilities exchanged both in ,„ ^ 1 ■ a ■ ^ ■ ■ ^
ancient and modern times between ^^^^ Adorns Aths, Onns, Second
vine-dressers, vintagers, and passers-by Edition, pp. 188 sqq.
seem to belong to a diflerent category. * Above, pp. 236 sq., 240, 243,
See W. Mannhardt, Mythologische 244, 248 sq.
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 259
calendar, since he dedicated his history to Antiochus Soter ;
and in his day the Macedonian month Lous appears to have
corresponded to the Babylonian month Tammuz.^ If this
conjecture is right, the view that the mock king at the Sacaea
was slain in the character of a god would be established.
But to this point we shall return later on.
There is a good deal more evidence that in Egypt the The corn-
slain corn-spirit — the dead Osiris — was represented by a g'"''"
human victim, whom the reapers slew on the harvest-field, (Osiris)
mourning his death in a dirge, to which the Greeks, through represented
a verbal misunderstanding, gave the name of Maneros.^ For by a human
the legend of Busiris seems to preserve a reminiscence of ^"^ ""'
human sacrifices once offered by the Egyptians in connexion
with the worship of Osiris. Busiris was said to have been
an Egyptian king who sacrificed all strangers on the altar
of Zeus. The origin of the custom was traced to a dearth
which afflicted the land of Egypt for nine years. A Cyprian
seer informed Busiris that the dearth would cease if a man
were annually sacrificed to Zeus. So Busiris instituted the
sacrifice. But when Hercules came to Egypt, and was being
dragged to the altar to be sacrificed, he burst his bonds
and slew Busiris and his son.^ Here then is a legend that
in Egypt a human victim was annually sacrificed to prevent
1 The probable correspondence of Herodotus (ii. 45) discredits the idea
the months, which supplies so welcome that the Egyptians ever offered human
a confirmation of the conjecture in the sacrifices. But his authority is not to
text, was pointed out to me by my be weighed against that of Manetho
friend W. Robertson Smith, who fur- (Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 73), who
nished me with the following note : affirms that they did. See further
"In the Syro- Macedonian calendar Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and
Lous represents Ab, not Tammuz. the Egyptian Restn-rection (London
Was Jt different in Babylon? I think and New York, 1911), i. 210 sqq.,
it was, and one month different, at who says (pp. 210, 212): " There is
least in the early times of the Greek abundant proof for the statement that
monarchy in Asia. For we know the Egyptians offered up sacrifices of
from a Babylonian observation in the human beings, and that, in common
Almagest {Ideler, i. 396) that in 22Q with many African tribes at the present
B.C. Xanthicus began on February 26. day, their customs in dealing with
It was therefore the month before the vanquished enemies were bloodthirsty
equinoctial moon, not Nisan but Adar, and savage. . . . The passages from
and consequently Lous answered to the Egyptian works quoted earlier in this
lunar month Tammuz." chapter prove that human sacrifices
2 Above, p. 215. were offered up at Heliopolis as well
^ Apollodorus, Bibliotkeca, ii. 5- ^^ at Tetu, or Busiris, and the rumour
1 1 ; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, of such sacrifices has found expression
Argon, iv. 1396 ; Plutarch, Parall. 38. in the works of Greek writers."
26o LIT VERSES chap.
the failure of the crops, and a belief is implied that an
omission of the sacrifice would have entailed a recurrence of
that infertility which it was the object of the sacrifice to
prevent. So the Pawnees, as we have seen, believed that an
omission of the human sacrifice at planting would have been
followed by a total failure of their crops. The name Busiris
was in reality the name of a city, pe-Asar, " the house of
Osiris," ^ the city being so called because it contained the
grave of Osiris. Indeed some high modern authorities
believe that Busiris was the original home of Osiris, from
which his worship spread to other parts of Egypt.^ The
human sacrifices were said to have been offered at his grave,
and the victims were red-haired men, whose ashes were
scattered abroad by means of winnowing-fans.^ This tradi-
tion of human sacrifices offered at the tomb of Osiris is
confirmed by the evidence of the monuments ; for "we find
in the temple of Dendereh a human figure with a hare's
head and pierced with knives, tied to a stake before Osiris
Khenti-Amentiu, and Horus is shown in a Ptolemaic sculpture
at Karnak killing a bound hare-headed figure before the
bier of Osiris, who is represented in the form of Harpocrates.
That these figures are really human beings with the head of
an animal fastened on is proved by another sculpture at
Dendereh, where a kneeling man has the hawk's head and
wings over his head and shoulders, and in another place a
priest has the jackal's head on his shoulders, his own head
appearing through the disguise. Besides, Diodorus tells us
that the Egyptian kings in former times had worn on their
heads the fore-part of a lion, or of a bull, or of a dragon,
^ E. Meyer, Geschichte des Alter- i. 2. p. 70). I am happy to find the
turns, i. (Stuttgart, 1884), § 57, view of the nature of Osiris, which I
p. 68. advocated many years ago, supported
2 E. Meyer, Geschichte des Alter- by the authority of so distinguished an
tums^ i. 2 (Stuttgart and Berlin, Oriental scholar. Dr. E. A. Wallis
1909), p. 97 ; G. Maspero, Histoire Budge holds that Busiris was the
Ancienne des Peicples de POriejit Clas- oldest shrine of Osiris in the north of
sique, Les Origines (Paris, 1895), pp. Egypt, but that it was less ancient
12() sgg. Both these eminent historians than his shrine at Abydos in the south,
have abandoned their former theory See E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and
that Osiris was the Sun-god. Professor the Egyptia7i Resurrection (London
E. Meyer now speaks of Osiris as " the and New York, 191 1), ii. i.
great vegetation god " and, on the ^ Diodorus Siculus, i. 88 ; Plutarch,
same page, as "an earth-god" [op. cit. /sis et Osiris, 73, compare 30, 33.
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 261
showing that this method of disguise or transformation was
a well-known custom."^
In the light of the foregoing discussion the Egyptian Assimiia-
tradition of Busiris admits of a consistent and fairly prob- I'°" °^
, . /^ • • 1 human
able explanation. Osiris, the corn-spirit, was annually victims to
represented at harvest by a stranger, whose red hair made *^u 'f'u
him a suitable representative of the ripe corn. This man, represent.
in his representative character, was slain on the harvest-field,
and mourned by the reapers, who prayed at the same time
that the corn-spirit might revive and return {tndd-ne-rha,
Maneros) with renewed vigour in the following year. Finally,
the victim, or some part of him, was burned, and the ashes
scattered by winnowing-fans over the fields to fertilise them.
Here the choice of the victim on the ground of his resem-
blance to the corn which he was to represent agrees with
the Mexican and African customs already described.^
Similarly the woman who died in the character of the Corn-
mother at the Mexican midsummer sacrifice had her face
painted red and yellow in token of the colours of the corn,
and she wore a pasteboard mitre surmounted by waving
plumes in imitation of the tassel of the maize.^ On the
other hand, at the festival of the Goddess of the White
Maize the Mexicans sacrificed lepers.* The Romans sacri-
ficed red-haired puppies in spring to avert the supposed
blighting influence of the Dog-star, believing that the crops
would thus grow ripe and ruddy.^ The heathen of Harran
offered to the sun, moon, and planets human victims who
were chosen on the ground of their supposed resemblance
to the heavenly bodies to which they were sacrificed ; for
example, the priests, clothed in red and smeared with blood,
offered a red-haired, red -cheeked man to "the red planet
^ Margaret A. Murray, The Osireion World called America, i. (Oxford,
at Abydos (London, 1904), p. 30, 1S92) p. 422.
referring to Mariette, Dendereh, iv. * Brasseur de Bourbourg, Htstoire
plates xxxi.,lvi., and Ixxxi. The passage des Nations civilis^es du Mexique et
of Diodorus Siculus referred to is i. de P Amirique Centrale (Paris, 1857-
62. 4. As to masks of animals worn 1859), iii. 535-
by Egyptian men and women in reli- ^ Festus, s.v. Catularia, p. 45 ed.
gious rites see The RIagic Art and the C. O. Mtiller. Compare id., s.v.
Evolution of Kings, ii. 133; The Ridilae canes, p. 285; Columella, De
Dying God, p. 72. re rustica, x. 342 sq. ; Ovid, Fasti, iv.
2 Above, pp. 237 sq., 240, 251. 905 sqq. ; Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii.
3 E, J. Payne, History of the New 14.
262
LITYERSES
victims
scattered
over the
fields to
fertilise
them.
Mars " in a temple which was painted red and draped with
red hangings.'^ These and the Hke cases of assimilating the
victim to the god, or to the natural phenomenon which he
represents, are based ultimately on the principle of homoeo-
pathic or imitative magic, the notion being that the object
aimed at will be most readily attained by means of a sacrifice
which resembles the effect that it is designed to bring about.
Remains of Again, the scattering of the Egyptian victim's ashes over
the fields resembles the Marimo and Khond custom,^ and the
use of winnowing-fans for the purpose is another hint of his
identification with the corn. So in Vendue a pretence is
made of threshing and winnowing the farmer's wife, regarded
as an embodiment of the corn-spirit ; in Mexico the victim
was ground between stones ; and in Africa he was slain with
spades and hoes.^ The story that the fragments of Osiris's
body were scattered up and down the land, and buried by
Isis on the spots where they lay,* may very well be a remin-
iscence of a custom, like that observed by the Khonds, of
dividing the human victim in pieces and burying the pieces,
often at intervals of many miles from each other, in the
fields.^ However, it is possible that the story of the dis-
memberment of Osiris, like the similar story told of Tammuz,
may have been simply a mythical expression for the scatter-
ing of the seed. Once more, the legend that the body of
Osiris enclosed in a coffer was thrown by Typhon into the
Nile, perhaps points to a custom of casting the body of the
victim, or at least a portion of it, into the Nile as a rain-
charm, or rather to make the river rise. For a similar
purpose Phrygian reapers seem to have flung the headless
bodies of their victims, wrapt in corn-sheaves, into a river,
and the Khonds poured water on the buried flesh of the
human victim. Probably when Osiris ceased to be repre-
sented by a human victim, an image of him was annually
thrown into the Nile, just as the efifigy of his Syrian counter-
^ D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und 1894), pp. 77 sq., 357-359.
der Ssabismus (St. Petersburg, 1856),
ii. 388 sq. Coinpare ibid., pp. 384
sq., 386 sq., 391, 393, 395, 397.
For other instances of the assimilation
of the victim to the god, see H. Olden-
berg, Die Religion des Veda (Berlin,
2 Above, pp. 240, 249.
3 Above, pp. 149 sq., 237 sq., 239.
* Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 18.
^ See above, p. 248 ; and compare
Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition,
pp. 331 sqq.
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 263
part, Adonis, used to be cast into the sea at Alexandria.
Or water may have been simply poured over it, as on the
monument already mentioned ^ a priest is seen pouring water
over the body of Osiris, from which corn-stalks are sprout-
ing. The accompanying legend, " This is Osiris of the
mysteries, who springs from the returning waters," bears out
the view that at the mysteries of Osiris a charm to make
rain fall or the river rise was regularly wrought by pouring
water on his effigy or flinging it into the Nile.
It may be objected that the red-haired victims were The black
slain as representatives, not of Osiris, but of his enemy o"stis^Hke
Typhon ; for the victims were called Typhonian, and red the black
was the colour of Typhon, black the colour of Osiris." The ^emlt!r.°
answer to this objection must be reserved for the present.
Meantime it may be pointed out that if Osiris is often
represented on the monuments as black, he is still more
commonly depicted as green,^ appropriately enough for a
corn-god, who may be conceived as black while the seed is
under ground, but as green after it has sprouted. So the
Greeks recognised both a Green and a Black Demeter,"* and
sacrificed to the Green Demeter in spring with mirth and
gladness.^
Thus, if I am right, the key to the mysteries of Osiris is The key
furnished by the melancholy cry of the Egyptian reapers, n°^.steries
which down to Roman times could be heard year after year of Osiris
sounding across the fields, announcing the death of the corn- bv the
spirit, the rustic prototype of Osiris. Similar cries, as we lamema-
1111 riir tionsofthe
have seen, were also heard on all the harvest -nelds 01 reapers for
Western Asia. By the ancients they are spoken of as songs ; ^^e annual
■^ -1 ^ T • J deathofthe
but to judge from the analysis of the names Lmus and corn-spirit.
Maneros, they probably consisted only of a few words uttered
in a prolonged musical note which could be heard for a
great distance. Such sonorous and long-drawn cries, raised
by a number of strong voices in concert, must have had a
striking effect, and could hardly fail to arrest the attention
1 See A dot is, Atiis, Osiris, Second 1878), iii. Si.
Edition, p. ^2^. , „ • •-,•••, c •••
T,^ \ -r T ■ . r^ ■ ■ Pausanias, 1. 22. 3, viu. 5. a, viii.
2 Plutarch, Iszs et Ostris, 22, 30, . j. j >
' ' ' -^ 42. 1.
31. 33> 73-
3 Sir J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and " Cornutus, Theologiae Grcucae Corn-
Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (ed. pendium, 28. See above, p. 42.
264
LITYERSES
of any wayfarer who happened to be within hearing. The
sounds, repeated again and again, could probably be dis-
tinguished with tolerable ease even at a distance ; but to a
Greek traveller in Asia or Egypt the foreign words would
commonly convey no meaning, and he might take them, not
unnaturally, for the name of some one (Maneros, Linus,
Lityerses, Bormus) upon whom the reapers were calling.
And if his journey led him through more countries than one,
as Bithynia and Phrygia, or Phoenicia and Egypt, while the
corn was being reaped, he would have an opportunity of
comparing the various harvest cries of the different peoples.
Thus we can readily understand why these harvest cries
were so often noted and compared with each other by the
Greeks. Whereas, if they had been regular songs, they
could not have been heard at such distances, and therefore
could not have attracted the attention of so many travellers ;
and, moreover, even if the wayfarer were within hearing of
them, he could not so easily have picked out the words.
Down to recent times Devonshire reapers uttered cries
of the same sort, and performed on the field a ceremony
exactly analogous to that in which, if I am not mistaken, the
rites of Osiris originated. The cry and the ceremony are
thus described by an observer who wrote in the first half of
the nineteenth century. " After the wheat is all cut, on
most farms in the north of Devon, the harvest people have
a custom of ' crying the neck.' I believe that this practice
is seldom omitted on any large farm in that part of the
country. It is done in this way. An old man, or some one
else well acquainted with the ceremonies used on the
occasion (when the labourers are reaping the last field of
wheat), goes round to the shocks and sheaves, and picks out
a little bundle of all the best ears he can find ; this bundle
he ties up very neat and trim, and plats and arranges the
straws very tastefully. This is called ' the neck ' of wheat,
or wheaten-ears. After the field is cut out, and the pitcher
once more circulated, the reapers, binders, and the women
stand round in a circle. The person with ' the neck ' stands
in the centre, grasping it with both his hands. He first
stoops and holds it near the ground, and all the men form-
ing the ring take off their hats, stooping and holding them
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 265
with both hands towards the ground. They then all begin
at once in a very prolonged and harmonious tone to cry
' The neck ! ' at the same time slowly raising themselves
upright, and elevating their arms and hats above their heads ;
the person with ' the neck ' also raising it on high. This is
done three times. They then change their cry to ' Wee
yen ! ' — ' Way yen ! ' — which they sound in the same pro-
longed and slow manner as before, with singular harmony
and effect, three times. This last cry is accompanied by the
same movements of the body and arms as in crying ' the
neck.' . . . After having thus repeated ' the neck ' three
times, and 'wee yen,' or 'way yen' as often, they all burst
out into a kind of loud and joyous laugh, flinging up their
hats and caps into the air, capering about and perhaps
kissing the girls. One of them then gets ' the neck ' and
runs as hard as he can down to the farmhouse, where the
dairymaid, or one of the young female domestics, stands at
the door prepared with a pail of water. If he who holds
' the neck ' can manage to get into the house, in any way
unseen, or openly, by any other way than the door at which
the girl stands with the pail of water, then he may lawfully
kiss her ; but, if otherwise, he is regularly soused with the
contents of the bucket. On a fine still autumn evening the
* crying of the neck ' has a wonderful effect at a distance, far
finer than that of the Turkish muezzin, which Lord Byron
eulogises so much, and which he says is preferable to all the
bells in Christendom. I have once or twice heard upwards
of twenty men cry it, and sometimes joined by an equal
number of female voices. About three years back, on some
high grounds, where our people were harvesting, I heard six
or seven ' necks ' cried in one night, although I know that
some of them were four miles off. They are heard through
the quiet evening air at a considerable distance sometimes."^
Again, Mrs. Bray tells how, travelling in Devonshire, " she
saw a party of reapers standing in a circle on a rising
ground, holding their sickles aloft. One in the middle held
up some ears of corn tied together with flowers, and the
party shouted three times (what she writes as) ' Arnack,
arnack, arnack, we haven, we haven, we haven! They went
^ W. Hone, Every-day Book (London, N.D.), ii. coll. 1170 sq.
266 LIT VERSES chap.
home, accompanied by women and children carrying boughs
of flowers, shouting and singing. The manservant who
attended Mrs. Bray said 'it was only the people making
their games, as they always did, to the spirit of harvest'"'^
Here, as Miss Burne remarks, " ' arnack, we haven ! ' is
obviously in the Devon dialect, ' a neck (or nack) ! we have
un ! '" " The neck " is generally hung up in the farmhouse,
where it sometimes remains for two or three years.^ A
similar custom is still observed in some parts of Cornwall,
as I was told by my lamented friend J. H. Middleton.
" The last sheaf is decked with ribbons. Two strong- voiced
men are chosen and placed (one with the sheaf) on opposite
sides of a valley. One shouts, ' I've gotten it.' The other
shouts, ' What hast gotten ? ' The first answers, ' I'se gotten
the neck.' " ^
Another account of this old custom, written at Truro in
1839, runs thus: "Now, when all the corn was cut at
Heligan, the farming men and maidens come in front of the
house, and bring with them a small sheaf of corn, the last
that has been cut, and this is adorned with ribbons and
flowers, and one part is tied quite tight, so as to look like a
neck. Then they cry out ' Our (my) side, my side,' as loud
as they can ; then the dairymaid gives the neck to the head
farming-man. He takes it, and says, very loudly three times,
* I have him, I have him, I have him.' Then another farm-
ing-man shouts very loudly, ' What have ye ? what have ye ?
what have ye ? ' Then the first says, ' A neck, a neck, a
neck.' And when he has said this, all the people make a
very great shouting. This they do three times, and after
one famous shout go away and eat supper, and dance, and
sing songs."* According to another account, "all went out
to the field when the last corn was cut, the ' neck ' was tied
with ribbons and plaited, and they danced round it, and
carried it to the great kitchen, where by-and-by the supper
^ Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. wife remembers the "neck" being
Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore (London, kept on the mantelpiece of the parlour
1883), pp. 372 sq., referring to Mrs. in a Cornish farmhouse; it generally
Bray's Traditions of Devon, i. 330. stayed there throughout the year.
2 W. Hone, op. cit, ii. 1172.
3 The Rev. Sydney Cooper, of 80 * " Old Harvest Customs in Devon
Gloucester Street, Cirencester, wrote and Cornwall," Folk-lore, i. (1890) p.
to me (4th February 1893) that his 280.
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 267
was. The words were as given in the previous account, and
* Hip, hip, hack, heck, I have 'ee, I have 'ee, I have 'ee.' It
was hung up in the hall." Another account relates that one
of the men rushed from the field with the last sheaf, while the
rest pursued him with vessels of water, which they tried to
throw over the sheaf before it could be brought into the barn.^
Similar customs appear to have been formerly observed Cutting
in Pembrokeshire, as appears from the following account, •^pgl^t'^^
in which, however, nothing is said of the sonorous cries brokeshire.
raised by the reapers when their work was done : " At
harvest-time, in South Pembrokeshire, the last ears of
corn left standing in the field were tied together, and the
harvesters then tried to cut this neck by throwing their
hatchets at it. What happened afterwards appears to have
varied somewhat. I have been told by one old man that
the one who got possession of the neck would carry it over
into some neighbouring field, leave it there, and take to his
heels as fast as he could ; for, if caught, he had a rough
time of it. The men who caught him would shut him up
in a barn without food, or belabour him soundly, or perhaps
shoe him, as it was called, beating the soles of his feet with
rods — a very severe and much -dreaded punishment. On
my grandfather's farm the man used to make for the house
as fast as possible, and try to carry in the neck. The maids
were on the look-out for him, and did their best to drench
him with water. If they succeeded, they got the present of
half-a-crown, which my grandfather always gave, and which
was considered a very liberal present indeed. If the man
was successful in dodging the maids, and getting the neck
into the house without receiving the wetting, the half-crown
became his. The neck was then hung up, and kept until
the following year, at any rate, like the bunches of flowers
or boughs gathered at the St. Jean, in the south of France.
Sometimes the necks of many successive years were to be
found hanging up together. In these two ways of disposing
of the neck one sees the embodiment, no doubt, of the two
ways of looking at the corn-spirit, as good (to be kept) or
as bad (to be passed on to the neighbour)." ^
1 Ibid. Neck Feast," Folk-lore, iv. (1893) p.
2 Frances Hoggan, M.D., "The 123. In Pembrokeshire the last sheaf
268 LIT Y ERSES chap.
Cutting In the foregoing customs a particular bunch of ears,
"theneck" orenerallv the last left standing,^ is conceived as the neck
in Shrop- & -^ ... 1,1111 ,
shire. of the corn-spint, who is consequently beheaded when the
bunch is cut down. Similarly in Shropshire the name
" neck," or " the gander's neck," used to be commonly given
to the last handful of ears left standing in the middle of
the field when all the rest of the corn was cut. It was
plaited together, and the reapers, standing ten or twenty
paces off, threw their sickles at it. Whoever cut it through
was said to have cut off the gander's neck. The " neck "
was taken to the farmer's wife, who was supposed to keep
it in the house for good luck till the next harvest came
round.^ Near Treves, the man who reaps the last standing
corn " cuts the goat's neck off." ^ At Faslane, on the
Gareloch (Dumbartonshire), the last handful of standing
corn was sometimes called the "head."* At Aurich, in
East Friesland, the man who reaps the last corn " cuts the
hare's tail off." ^ In mowing down the last corner of a field
French reapers sometimes call out, " We have the cat by the
tail." ® In Bresse (Bourgogne) the last sheaf represented the
fox. Beside it a score of ears were left standing to form
the tail, and each reaper, going back some paces, threw his
sickle at it. He who succeeded in severing it "cut off the
fox's tail," and a cry of " Yoic cou cou ! " was raised in his
Why the houour." Thcse examples leave no room to doubt the
last corn meaning of the Devonshire and Cornish expression " the
called "the ucck," as applied to the last sheaf The corn-spirit is con-
^^'^^' ceived in human or animal form, and the last standing corn
is part of its body — its neck, its head, or its tail. Some-
times, as we have seen, the last corn is regarded as the
navel-string.^ Lastly, the Devonshire custom of drenching
with water the person who brings in " the neck " is a rain-
charm, such as we have had many examples of Its parallel
of corn seems to have been commonly ^ W. Mannhardc, Mythologisclie
known as "the Hag" (wrack) rather Forschungen, p. 185.
than as "the Neck." See above, * See above, p. 158.
pp. 142-144. s W. Mannhardt, Mythologischc
^ J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. Forschungen, p. 185.
20 (Bohn's edition) ; Miss C. S. Burne ^ Ibid.
and Miss G. F. Jackson, Shropshire '' Revue des Traditions populaires.
Folk-lore, p. 371. ii. (1887) p. 500.
- Burne and Jackson, I.e. ** Above, p. 150.
VII CORN-SPIRIT AND HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES 269
in the mysteries of Osiris was the custom of pouring water on
the image of Osiris or on the person who represented him.
In Germany cries of Waul/ or Wol ! or Wold! are Cries of the
sometimes raised by the reapers at cutting the last corn. Germany"
Thus in some places the last patch of standing rye was
called the Waul-rye ; a stick decked with flowers was in-
serted in it, and the ears were fastened to the stick. Then
all the reapers took off their hats and cried thrice, " Waul f
Waul! Waul!" Sometimes they accompanied the cry by
clashing with their whetstones on their scythes/
* "E. M.e\sr, m Zeitschrift/iirdeutsche aus Westfalen (Leipsic, 1859), ii. pp.
Mythologie und Sittenkunde, i. (1853) 177 sq., §§ 491, 492 ; A. Kuhn und
pp. 170-173 ; U. Jahn, Die deutschen W. Schwartz, Norddeidsche Sagen,
Opfergebrduche bet Ackerban und Vieh- Mdrchcn und Gebrduche{\^&v^^\c, 1848),
zucht (Breslau, 1884), pp. 166-169; P- 395> § 97 5 K. Lynker, Deutsche
H. Pfannenschmid, Germanische Emte- Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen
feste (Hanover, 1878), pp. 104 j^. ; A. (Cassel and Gottingen, j86o), p. 256,
Kuhn, Sagen, Gebrduche und Mdrchen § 340
CHAPTER VIII
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
^ I. Animal Embodiments of the Corn-Spirit
The corn- In some of the examples which I have cited to establish
spirit as an ^y^^ meanins^ of the term " neck " as applied to the last sheaf,
animal. ° ^ ^^ '
the corn-spirit appears in animal form as a gander, a goat, a
hare, a cat, and a fox. This introduces us to a new aspect
of the corn-spirit, which we must now examine. By doing
so we shall not only have fresh examples of killing the god,
but may hope also to clear up some points which remain
obscure in the myths and worship of Adonis, Attis, Osiris,
Dionysus, Demeter, and Virbius.
The corn- Amongst the many animals whose forms the corn-spirit is
spirit in the supposed to take are the wolf, dog, hare, fox, cock, goose, quail,
animal is cat, goat, COW (ox, bull), pig, and horse. In one or other of
to^be*^^ these shapes the corn-spirit is often believed to be present in the
present in com, and to be caught or killed in the last sheaf As the corn
corn^ut or ^^ being cut the animal flees before the reapers, and if a reaper
threshed, js taken ill on the field, he is supposed to have stumbled
caught or Unwittingly on the corn-spirit, who has thus punished the
killed by profane intruder. It is said " the Rye-wolf has got hold of
or thresher, him," "the Harvest-goat has given him a push." The person
who cuts the last corn or binds the last sheaf gets the name
of the animal, as the Rye-wolf, the Rye-sow, the Oats-goat,
and so forth, and retains the name sometimes for a year.
Also the animal is frequently represented by a puppet made
out of the last sheaf or of wood, flowers, and so on, which is
carried home amid rejoicings on the last harvest-waggon.
Even where the last sheaf is not made up in animal shape,
it is often called the Rye-wolf, the Hare, Goat, and so forth.
270
CH. VIII ANIMAL EMBODIMENTS OF CORN-SPIRIT 271
Generally each kind of crop is supposed to have its special
animal, which is caught in the last sheaf, and called the
Rye-wolf, the Barley-wolf, the Oats-wolf, the Pea-wolf, or the
Potato-wolf, according to the crop ; but sometimes the figure
of the animal is only made up once for all at getting in the
last crop of the whole harvest. Sometimes the creature is
believed to be killed by the last stroke of the sickle or scythe.
But oftener it is thought to live so long as there is corn still
unthreshed, and to be caught in the last sheaf threshed.
Hence the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is told
that he has got the Corn-sow, the Threshing-dog, or the like.
When the threshing is finished, a puppet is made in the
form of the animal, and this is carried by the thresher of the
last sheaf to a neighbouring farm, where the threshing is still
going on. This again shews that the corn-spirit is believed
to live wherever the corn is still being threshed. Sometimes
the thresher of the last sheaf himself represents the animal ;
and if the people of the next farm, who are still threshing,
catch him, they treat him like the animal he represents, by
shutting him up in the pig-sty, calling him with the cries
commonly addressed to pigs, and so forth. ^ These general
statements will now be illustrated by examples.
§ 2. The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog
We begin with the corn-spirit conceived as a wolf or The corn-
a dog. This conception is common in France, Germany, ^^T'' ^^ ^
, ) / ) Yvolf or
and Slavonic countries. Thus, when the wind sets the a dog,
corn in wave -like motion the peasants often say, " The j^^^.^^^*^^
Wolf is going over, or through, the corn," " the Rye- through
wolf is rushing over the field," " the Wolf is in the corn,"
" the mad Dog is in the corn," " the big Dog is there." ^
When children wish to go into the corn-fields to pluck ears
^ '^.lAzx\xi^dix6.\.,Die Komddmonen O. Hartung, "Zur Volkskunde aus
(Berlin, 1868), pp. 1-6. Anhalt," Zeitschrift des Vereins fur
2 W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf und VolLskunde, vii. (1897) p. 150 ; W.
Roggenhund'^ (Danzig, 1866), pp. 6 Miiller, Beitrdge zur Volkskunde der
sqq. ; id., Antike Wald- und Feldkulte Deutschen in Mdhren (Vienna and
(Berlin, 1877), pp. 318 sq. ; id., Olmutz, 1893), p. 327; P. Drechsler,
Mythologische Forschimgen, p. 103 ; A. Sitte, Branch und Volksglaube in
Y^iizcheX, Sagen, Sitten und Gebrduche Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii.
aus ThUringen (Vienna, 1878), p. 213 ; 60.
272
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit as a
dog at
reaping
and
threshing.
or gather the blue corn-flowers, they are warned not to do so,
for " the big Dog sits in the corn," or " the Wolf sits in the
corn, and will tear you in pieces," " the Wolf will eat you."
The wolf against whom the children are warned is not a
common wolf, for he is often spoken of as the Corn-wolf,
Rye-wolf, or the like ; thus they say, " The Rye-wolf will
come and eat you up, children," " the Rye-wolf will carry
you off," and so forth,^ Still he has all the outward appear-
ance of a wolf For in the neighbourhood of Feilenhof (East
Prussia), when a wolf was seen running through a field, the
peasants used to watch whether he carried his tail in the air
or dragged it on the ground. If he dragged it on the
ground, they went after him, and thanked him for bringing
them a blessing, and even set tit-bits before him. But if he
carried his tail high, they cursed him and tried to kill him.
Here the wolf is the corn-spirit whose fertilising power is in
his tail.^
Both dog and wolf appear as embodiments of the corn-
spirit in harvest-customs. Thus in some parts of Silesia the
person who cuts or binds the last sheaf is called the Wheat-
dog or the Peas-pug.^ But it is in the harvest-customs of
the north-east of France that the idea of the Corn-dog comes
out most clearly. Thus when a harvester, through sickness,
weariness, or laziness, cannot or will not keep up with the
reaper in front of him, they say, " The White Dog passed
near him," " he has the White Bitch," or " the White Bitch
has bitten him." ^ In the Vosges the Harvest-May is called
the " Dog of the harvest," ^ and the person who cuts the last
handful of hay or wheat is said to " kill the Dog," ^ About
Lons-le-Saulnier, in the Jura, the last sheaf is called the
Bitch. In the neighbourhood of Verdun the regular expres-
sion for finishing the reaping is, " They are going to kill the
Dog " ; and at Epinal they say, according to the crop, " We
will kill the Wheat-dog, or the Rye-dog, or the Potato-
Schleden, ii. 64.
* W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forscktatgen, p. 104.
^ Ibid. pp. lOi^ sq. On the Harvest-
May, see The Magic Art and the
Evolution of Kings, ii. 47 sq.
^ L. F. Sauve, Folk-lore des Hautes-
Vosges (Paris, 1889), p. 191.
^ W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf imd
Roggenhund,^ pp. 10 sqq. ; id., Antike
Wald- und Feldkulte, p. 319.
2 W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf und
Roggenhund,^ pp. 14 sq.
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen, p. 104 ; P. Drechsler,
Sitte, Branch und Volksirlauhe in
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A WOLF OR A DOG 272,
dog." ^ In Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the
last corn, " He is killing the Dog of the harvest." ^ At
Dux, in the Tyrol, the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is said to " strike down the Dog " ; ^ and at Ahne-
bergen, near Stade, he is called, according to the crop.
Corn-pug, Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.^
So with the wolf In Silesia, when the reapers gather The corn-
round the last patch of standing corn to reap it they are ^P'j"'' ^^ ^
said to be about " to catch the Wolf" * In various parts of reaping.
Mecklenburg, where the belief in the Corn-wolf is particularly
prevalent, every one fears to cut the last corn, because they
.say that the Wolf is sitting in it ; hence every reaper exerts
himself to the utmost in order not to be the last, and every
woman similarly fears to bind the last sheaf because " the
Wolf is in it." So both among the reapers and the binders
there is a competition not to be the last to finish.^ And in
Germany generally it appears to be a common saying that
" the Wolf sits in the last sheaf" ^ In some places they call
out to the reaper, " Beware of the Wolf" ; or they say, " He
is chasing the Wolf out of the corn." ^ In Mecklenburg the
last bunch of standing corn is itself commonly called the
Wolf, and the man who reaps it " has the Wolf," the animal
being described as the Rye-wolf, the Wheat-wolf, the Barley-
wolf, and so on according to the particular crop. The reaper
of the last corn is himself called Wolf or the Rye-wolf, if the
crop is rye, and in many parts of Mecklenburg he has
to support the character by pretending to bite the other
harvesters or by howling like a wolf.^ The last sheaf of
corn is also called the Wolf or the Rye-wolf or the Oats-wolf
according to the crop, and of the woman who binds it they
say, " The Wolf is biting her," " She has the Wolf," " She
must fetch the Wolf" (out of the corn). Moreover, she
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Meklenbiirg (Vienna, 1 879- 1880), ii.
Forschungen, p. 105. p. 309, § 1496, p. 310, §§ 1497,
2 Jbid. p. 30. 1498.
3 Ibid. pp. 30, 105. " W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und
* Ibid. pp. 105 sg. Feldkulte, p. 320.
6 P. Drechsler, Sitte, Branch tmd * W. Mannhardt, Roggemvolf und
Volksglat{beinSchlesien{'Le.\'ps\c, 1903- Koggenhiind,'^ ^^. 33.
1906), ii. 64. ® W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf und
6 W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf tmd Roggenhiind," pp. 33 sq. ; K. Bartsch,
Roggenhund,"^ pp. 33, 39 ; K. Bartsch, op. cit. ii. p. 309, § 1496, p. 310, §§
Sagen, Mdrchen und Gebrduche aus 1497, 1500, 1501.
PT. v. VOL. I T
274 THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL chap.
herself is called Wolf; they cry out to her, "Thou art the
Wolf," and she has to bear the name for a whole year ;
sometimes, according to the crop, she is called the Rye-wolf
or the Potato-wolf^ In the island of RUgen not only is the
woman who binds the last sheaf called Wolf, but when she
comes home she bites the lady of the house and the
stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of meat.
Yet nobody likes to be the Wolf. The same woman may
be Rye- wolf, Wheat- wolf, and Oats-wolf, if she happens to
bind the last sheaf of rye, wheat, and oats.^ At Buir, in the
district of Cologne, it was formerly the custom to give to the
last sheaf the shape of a wolf. It was kept in the barn till
all the corn was threshed. Then it was brought to the
farmer and he had to sprinkle it with beer or brandy.^ At
Brunshaupten in Mecklenburg the young woman who bound
the last sheaf of wheat used to take a handful of stalks out
of it and make "the Wheat-wolf" with them ; it was the
figure of a wolf about two feet long and half a foot high, the
legs of the animal being represented by stiff stalks and its
tail and mane by wheat-ears. This Wheat-wolf she carried
back at the head of the harvesters to the village, where it
was set up on a high place in the parlour of the farm and
remained there for a long time.^ In many places the sheaf
called the Wolf is made up in human form and dressed in
clothes. This indicates a confusion of ideas between the
corn-spirit conceived in human and in animal form. Gener-
ally the Wolf is brought home on the last waggon with
joyful cries. Hence the last waggon-load itself receives the
name of the Wolf.^
Again, the Wolf is supposed to hide himself amongst the
cut corn in the granary, until he is driven out of the last
bundle by the strokes of the flail. Hence at Wanzleben,
near Magdeburg, after the threshing the peasants go in pro-
cession, leading by a chain a man who is enveloped in the
1 W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf tmd * K. Bartsch, op. cit. ii. p. 311, §
Roggenhiind,'^ pp. 33, 34. 1505.
2 W. Mannhardt, Roggenivolf und ^ W. Mannhardt, Roggemcolf jind
Roggenhttnd,- p. 38; id., Aniike Wald- Roggenhuiid,'^ pp. 35-37 ; K. Bartsch,
und Feldktdte, p. 320. op. cit. ii. p. 309, § 1496, p. 310,
3 W. Mannhardt, Roggenwolf und §§ 1499, 1 501, p. 31 1, §§ 1506,
Roggenhimd,'^ pp. 34 sq, 1507.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A WOLF OR A DOG 275
threshed-out straw and is called the Wolf.^ He represents The corn-
the corn-spirit who has been caught escaping from the a^^^jf^
threshed corn. In the district of Treves it is believed that killed at
the Corn-wolf is killed at threshing. The men thresh the '^^'^ '"°'
last sheaf till it is reduced to chopped straw. In this way
they think that the Corn-wolf, who was lurking in the last
sheaf, has been certainly killed."
In France also the Corn-wolf appears at harvest. Thus The corn-
they call out to the reaper of the last corn, " You will ^rrve^t in
catch the Wolf" Near Chambery they form a ring round France.
the last standing corn, and cry, " The Wolf is in there."
In Finisterre, when the reaping draws near an end, the
harvesters cry, "There is the Wolf; we will catch him."
Each takes a swath to reap, and he who finishes first calls
out, " I've caught the Wolf" ^ In Guyenne, when the last The corn-
corn has been reaped, they lead a wether all round the field. on'[he''^^'^
It is called " the Wolf of the field." Its horns are decked with harvest-
a wreath of flowers and corn-ears, and its neck and body are
also encircled with garlands and ribbons. All the reapers
march, singing, behind it. Then it is killed on the field. In this
part of France the last sheaf is called the cotijoulage, which, in
the patois, means a wether. Hence the killing of the wether
represents the death of the corn-spirit, considered as present
in the last sheaf ; but two different conceptions of the corn-
spirit — as a wolf and as a wether — are mixed up together.*
Sometimes it appears to be thought that the Wolf, The corn-
caught in the last corn, lives during the winter in the farm- midwinter,
house, ready to renew his activity as corn-spirit in the spring.
Hence at midwinter, when the lengthening days begin to
herald the approach of spring, the Wolf makes his appear-
ance once more. In Poland a man, with a wolf's skin
thrown over his head, is led about at Christmas ; or a
stuffed wolf is carried about by persons who collect money.^
There are facts which point to an old custom of leading
about a man enveloped in leaves and called the Wolf, while
his conductors collected money.^
1 W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- itnd * Ibia. pp. 320 sq.
Feldkulte p. 321. 5 j^.^_
- Ibid. pp. 321 sq. ^ "^
2 Ibid. p. 320. ® Ibid. p. 323.
276
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit as a
cock at
harvest.
5 3. The Corn-spirit as a Cock
Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that
of a cock. In Austria children are warned against straying
in the corn-fields, because the Corn-cock sits there, and will
peck their eyes out.^ In North Germany they say that " the
Cock sits in the last sheaf" ; and at cutting the last corn the
reapers cry, " Now we will chase out the Cock." When it is
cut they say, " We have caught the Cock." "" At Braller, in
Transylvania, when the reapers come to the last patch of corn,
they cry, " Here we shall catch the Cock." ^ At Fiirstenwalde,
when the last sheaf is about to be bound, the master releases
a cock, which he has brought in a basket, and lets it run
over the field. All the harvesters chase it till they catch it.
Elsewhere the harvesters all try to seize the last corn cut ;
he who succeeds in grasping it must crow, and is called
Cock.^ Among the Wends it is or used to be customary
for the farmer to hide a live cock under the last sheaf as it
lay on the field ; and when the corn was being gathered up,
the harvester who lighted upon this sheaf had a right to
keep the cock, provided he could catch it. This formed the
close of the harvest-festival and was known as " the Cock-
catching," and the beer which was served out to the reapers
at this time went by the name of " Cock-beer." ^ The last
sheaf is called Cock, Cock-sheaf, Harvest-cock, Harvest-hen,
Autumn-hen. A distinction is made between a Wheat-
cock, Bean-cock, and so on, according to the crop.^ At
Wunschensuhl, in Thiiringen, the last sheaf is made into
the shape of a cock, and called the Harvest-cock.'^ A
figure of a cock, made of wood, pasteboard, ears of corn.
^ W. Mannhardt, Die Komddmonett ,
P- 13-
2 W. Mannhardt, /.r.; J. H.Schmitz,
Sitten 2ind Sageii, Lieder, Spriklnv'orter
iind Rathsei des Eifler Volkes (Treves,
1856- 1 858), i. 95 ; A. Kuhn und V^.
Schwartz, No7-ddentsche Sagen, Mdrchen
imd Gebrduche (Leipsic, 1848), p. 398.
^ G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten
und Gebrduche utiter den Sachsen
Siebenbiirgens (Hermannstadt, 1880),
p. 21.
* W. Mannhardt, Die Korndd)iionen,
p. 13. Compare A. Kuhn and \V.
Schwartz, I.e.
° K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz
(Leipsic, 1862-1863), i. p. 232, No.
277 note.
6 W. lsla.x\n\\s.xAx., Die Koj nddvionen,
P- 13-
^ A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitteti jind
Gebrduche aus Thiiringen (\^ienna,
1878), p. 220.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A COCK 277
or flowers, is borne in front of the harvest-waggon, especially
in Westphalia, where the cock carries in his beak fruits of
the earth of all kinds. Sometimes the image of the cock is
fastened to the top of a May-tree on the last harvest-waggon.
Elsewhere a live cock, or a figure of one, is attached to a
harvest-crown and carried on a pole. In Galicia and else-
where this live cock is fastened to the garland of corn-ears
or flowers, which the leader of the women-reapers carries on
her head as she marches in front of the harvest procession.^
In Silesia a live cock is presented to the master on a plate.
The harvest-supper is called Harvest-cock, Stubble-cock, etc.,
and a chief dish at it, at least in some places, is a cock.^ If
a waggoner upsets a harvest-waggon, it is said that " he has
spilt the Harvest cock," and he loses the cock, that is, the
harvest-supper,^ The harvest-waggon, with the figure of
the cock on it, is driven round the farmhouse before it is
taken to the barn. Then the cock is nailed over or at the
side of the house-door, or on the gable, and remains there
till next harvest* In East Friesland the person who gives
the last stroke at threshing is called the Clucking-hen, and
grain is strewed before him as if he were a hen.^
Again, the corn-spirit is killed in the form of a cock. The com-
In parts of Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Picardy the ^^'[1^^ lorm
reapers place a live cock in the corn which is to be cut last, of a live
and chase it over the field, or bury it up to the neck in the
ground ; afterwards they strike off its head with a sickle or
scythe.^ In many parts of Westphalia, when the harvesters
bring the wooden cock to the farmer, he gives them a live
' W. Mannhardt, ZJz'eA'orwaViOTi?;/^/, expression for overthrowing a load at
pp. 13 sq. ; J. H. Schmitz, Sitten tend harvest is " to lose the goose," and the
Sageti, Lieder, Spriichwdrter und penalty used to be the loss of the goose
Hdtksel des EiJierVolkes {Treves, 1856- at the harvest-supper (C. S. Burne and
1858), i. 95 ; A. Kuhn, Sageti, Ge- G. F. Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore,
brduche tmd Mdrchen aus Westfalen London, 1883, p. 375) ; and in some
(Leipsic, 1859), ii. 180 j^.; H. Pfan- parts of England the harvest-supper was
nenschmid, Germanische Erntefeste called the Harvest Gosling, or the
(Hanover, 1878), p. iio. Inning Goose (J. Brand, Popular Anti-
2 W. Munnhardt, Die A'ornddMotii'H, qtiities, ii. 23, 26, Bohn's edition).
p. 14; H. Pfannenschmid, op. cit. pp. 4 w. yi2.^x,\i2.xd.^,Die Kornddmomn,
III, 419^?. p. 14.
3 W. Mannhardt, Die Kornddmonen, .
p. 15. So in Shropshire, where the " ^"'^"- P- ^5-
corn-spirit is conceived in the form of ^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologischc
a gander (see above, p. 268), the Forschungen, p. 30.
278 THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL chap.
cock, which they kill with whips or sticks, or behead with
an old sword, or throw into the barn to the girls, or give to
the mistress to cook. If the harvest-cock has not been
spilt — that is, if no waggon has been upset — the harvesters
have the right to kill the farmyard cock by throwing stones
at it or beheading it. Where this custom has fallen into
disuse, it is still common for the farmer's wife to make
cockie-leekie for the harvesters, and to shew them the
head of the cpck which has been killed for the soup.^ In
the neighbourhood of Klausenburg, Transylvania, a cock is
buried on th? harvest-field in the earth, so that only its head
appears. A' young man then takes a scythe and cuts off
the cock's head at a single sweep. If he fails to do this,
he is called the Red Cock for a whole year, and people
fear that next year's crop will be bad.^ Near Udvarhely,
in Transylvania, a live cock is bound up in the last sheaf
and killed with a spit. It is then skinned. The flesh
is thrown away, but the skin and feathers are kept till next
year ; and in spring the grain from the last sheaf is mixed
with the feathers of the cock and scattered on the field which
is to be tilled.^ Nothing could set in a clearer light the
identification of the cock with the spirit of the corn. By
being tied up in the last sheaf and killed, the cock is identi-
fied with the corn, and its death with the cutting of the corn.
By keeping its feathers till spring, then mixing them with
the seed-corn taken from the very sheaf in which the bird
had been bound, and scattering the feathers together with
the seed over the field, the identity of the bird with the corn
is again emphasised, and its quickening and fertilising power,
as an embodiment of the corn-spirit, is intimated in the
plainest manner. Thus the corn-spirit, in the form of a
cock, is killed at harvest, but rises to fresh life and activity
in spring. Again, the equivalence of the cock to the corn is
expressed, hardly less plainly, in the custom of burying the
bird in the ground, and cutting off its head (like the ears of
corn) with the scythe.
1 W. Mannhardt, Die Korndd/Honej!, ^ W. Mannhardt, Die Ko7-nddmo7ten,
p. 15. P- 15 ; id,, Mythologische Forschungen,
2 Ihid. pp. 15 sq. p. 30.
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A HARE 279
§ 4. The Corn-spirit as a Hare
Another common embodiment of the corn-spirit is the The corn-
hare/ In Galloway the reaping of the last standing corn spmtasa
is called '* cutting the Hare." The mode of cutting it is as harvest,
follows. When the rest of the corn has been reaped, a
handful is left standing to form the Hare. It is divided
into three parts and plaited, and the ears are tied in a knot.
The reapers then retire a few yards and each throws his or
her sickle in turn at the Hare to cut it down. It must be
cut below the knot, and the reapers continue to throw their
sickles at it, one after the other, until one of them succeeds
in severing the stalks below the knot. The Hare is then
carried home and given to a maidservant in the kitchen, who
places it over the kitchen-door* on the inside. Sometimes
the Hare used to be thus kept till the next harvest. In the
parish of Minnigaff, when the Hare was cut, the unmarried
reapers ran home with all speed, and the one who arrived
first was the first to be married.^ In Southern Ayrshire the
last corn cut is also called the Hare, and the mode of cutting
it seems to be the same as in Galloway ; at least in the neigh-
bourhood of Kilmarnock the last corn left standing in the
middle of the field is plaited, and the reapers used to try to
cut it by throwing their sickles at it. When cut, it was carried
home and hung up over the door.^ In the Vosges Mountains
the person who cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is some-
times said to have caught the Hare ; he is congratulated by
his comrades and has the honour of carrying the nosegay or
the small fir-tree decorated with ribbons which marks the con-
clusion of the harvest. ■* In Germany also one of the names
for the last sheaf is the Hare.^ Thus in some parts of
Anhalt, when the corn has been reaped and only a few stalks
are left standing, they say, " The Hare will soon come," or
the reapers cry to each other, " Look how the Hare comes
^ W. Mannhardt, /)/« A'(7r«i/rt'w^«£«, ^ Folk-lore Journal, vii. (1889) pp.
p. I. 47 ^?-
2 W. Gregor, "Preliminary Report * L. F. ?>3M\e, Folk-lore des Hautes-
on Folklore in Galloway, Scotland," Vosges (Paris, 1889), p. 191.
Report of the British Association for ^ W. Mannhardt, Die Korndd^nonen,
i8g6, p. 623. p. 3.
28o
THE CORN-SPIRir AS AN ANIMAL
jumping out." ^ In East Prussia they say that the Hare sits in
the last patch of standing corn, and must be chased out by the
last reaper. The reapers hurry with their work, each being
anxious not to Have " to chase out the Hare " ; for the man
who does so, that is, who cuts the last corn, is much laughed
at.^ At Birk, in Transylvania, when the reapers come to the
last patch, they cry out, " We have the Hare." ^ At Aurich,
as we have seen,* an expression for cutting the last corn is
" to cut off the Hare's tail." " He is killing the Hare " is
commonly said of the man who cuts the last corn in Ger-
in the last many, Sweden, Holland, France, and Italy.*^ In Norway
the man who is thus said to " kill the Hare " must give
" hare's blood " in the form of brandy, to his fellows to
drink.^ In Lesbos, when the reapers are at work in two
neighbouring fields, each party tries to finish first in order
to drive the Hare into their neighbour's field ; the reapers
who succeed in doing so believe that next year the crop
will be better. A small sheaf of corn is made up and kept
beside the holy picture till next harvest.'^
The corn-
spirit as a
hare killed
corn cut.
,./
5. The Corn-spirit as a Cat
The corn-
spirit as
a cat
sitting in
the corn.
The corn-
spirit as a
cat at reap-
ing and
threshing.
Again, the corn-spirit sometimes takes the form of a cat
Near Kiel children are warned not to go into the corn-fields
because " the Cat sits there." In the Eisenach Oberland they
are told " the Corn-cat will come and fetch you," " the Corn-
cat goes in the corn." In some parts of Silesia at mowing
the last corn they say, " The Cat is caught " ; and at threshing,
the man who gives the last stroke is called the Cat. In
the neighbourhood of Lyons the last sheaf and the harvest-
supper are both called the Cat. About Vesoul when they
cut the last corn they say, " We have the Cat by the tail."
At Brian^on, in Dauphin^, at the beginning of reaping, a
^ O. Hartung, " Zur Volkskunde
aus Anhalt," Zeitschiift des Vereins fiir
Volkskunde, vii. (1897) p. 154.
2 C. Lemke, Volksthiimliches in Osi-
freussen (Mohrungen, 1884-1887), i.
24;
■^ G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten
iind Gebrduch.e tinier den Sachsen Sie-
benbiirgens ( Hermannstadt, 1 880), p. 2 1 .
* Above, p. 268.
6 W. Mannliardt, Mythologische
Forschtingen, p. 29,
8 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forscktaigen, pp. 29 sg. ; id., Die
Kornddmotien, p. 5.
" Georgeakis et Pineau, Folk-lore dc
Lesbos (Paris, 1894), p. 310.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A CAT 281
cat is decked out with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn. It
is called the Cat of the ball-skin {le chat de peaic de balle).
If a reaper is wounded at his work, they make the cat lick
the wound. At the close of the reaping the cat is again
decked out with ribbons and ears of corn ; then they dance
and make merry. When the dance is over the girls solemnly
strip the cat of its finery. At Griineberg, in Silesia, the
reaper who cuts the last corn goes by the name of the
Tom-cat He is enveloped in rye-stalks and green withes,
and is furnished with a long plaited tail. Sometimes as a
companion he has a man similarly dressed, who is called the
(female) Cat. Their duty is to run after people whom they
see and to beat them with a long stick. Near Amiens the The corn-
expression for finishing the harvest is, " They are going to carLiHecT
kill the Cat " ; and when the last corn is cut they kill a cat at reaping
in the farmyard. At threshing, in some parts of France, a threshing.
live cat is placed under the last bundle of corn to be
threshed, and is struck dead with the flails. Then on
Sunday it is roasted and eaten as a holiday dish.^ In the
Vosges Mountains the close of haymaking or harvest
is called " catching the cat," " killing the dog," or more
rarely " catching the hare." The cat, the dog, or the hare
is said to be fat or lean according as the crop is good
or bad. The man who cuts the last handful of hay or of
wheat is said to catch the cat or the hare or to kill the dog.
He is congratulated by his comrades and has the honour of
carrying the nosegay or rather the small fir-tree decked
with ribbons which marks the end of the haymaking or of
the harvest.^ In Franche-Comte also the close of harvest is
called " catching or killing the cat." ^
^ 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat
Further, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of a
goat. In some parts of Prussia, when the corn bends before
1 W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald-iind 1906), ii. 64, 65.
Feldkidte, pp. 172- 1 74; id., Mytho- 2 l_ p. Sauve, Le Folk-lore des
logische Forschungen, p. 30; P. Hautes- Fosses {Paris, 1889), p. 191.
Drechsler, SiUe, Branch und Folks- ^ Ch. Beauquier, Les Mois c/i
glaube 171 Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903- Franch-Comti (Paris, 1900), p. 102.
282
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit as
a goat
running
through
the corn
or sitting
in it.
The corn-
goat at
reaping
and
binding
the corn.
the wind, they say, " The Goats are chasing each other,"
" the wind is driving the Goats through the corn," " the
Goats are browsing there," and they expect a very good
harvest. Again they say, " The Oats-goat is sitting in the
oats-field," " the Corn-goat is sitting in the rye-field." ^
Children are warned not to go into the corn-fields to pluck
the blue corn-flowers, or amongst the beans to pluck pods,
because the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat, or the
Bean-goat is sitting or lying there, and will carry them away
or kill them.^ When a harvester is taken sick or lags
behind his fellows at their work, they call out, " The Harvest-
goat has pushed him," "he has been pushed by the Corn-
goat." ^ In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg (East Prussia)
at binding the oats every harvester makes haste " lest the
Corn-goat push him." At Oefoten, in Norway, each reaper
has his allotted patch to reap. When a reaper in the middle
has not finished reaping his piece after his neighbours have
finished theirs, they say of him, " He remains on the island."
And if the laggard is a man, they imitate the cry with which
they call a he-goat ; if a woman, the cry with which they
call a she-goat.* Near Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, it is said
of the 'man who cuts the last corn that " he has the Corn-
goat, or the Wheat-goat, or the Oats-goat," according to
the crop. Moreover, two horns are set up on the last heap
of corn, and it is called " the horned Goat." At Kreutzburg,
East Prussia, they call out to the woman who is binding the
last sheaf, " The Goat is sitting in the sheaf." ^ At Gab-
lingen, in Swabia, when the last field of oats upon a farm is
being reaped, the reapers carve a goat out of wood. Ears
of oats are inserted in its nostrils and mouth, and it is
adorned with garlands of flowers. It is set up on the field
and called the Oats-goat. When the reaping approaches an
end, each reaper hastens to finish his piece first ; he who is
the last to finish gets the Oats-goat.^ Again, the last sheaf
is itself called the Goat. Thus, in the valley of the Wiesent,
Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the field is called the Goat,
1 W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und ^ Ibid. p. 162.
Feldkulte, pp. 155 5^. 6 F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen
2 Ibid. pp. 157 sq. Mythologie (Munich, 1848- 1855), ii.
3 Ibid. p. 159. pp. 232 sq., § 426; W. Mannhardt,
* Ibid. pp. 161 sq. Antike IVald- tind Feldktilte, p. 162.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A GOAT 283
and they have a proverb, " The field must bear a goat." ^ At
Spachbriicken, in Hesse, the last handful of corn which is
cut is called the Goat, and the man who cuts it is much
ridiculed.^ At Diirrenbuchig and about Mosbach in Baden the
last sheaf is also called the Goat.^ Sometimes the last sheaf
is made up in the form of a goat, and they say, " The Goat
is sitting in it." * Again, the person who cuts or binds the
last sheaf is called the Goat. Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg
they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, " You
are the Harvest-goat." Near Uelzen, in Hanover, the harvest
festival begins with " the bringing of the Harvest-goat " ;
that is, the woman who bound the last sheaf is wrapt in
straw, crowned with a harvest-wreath, and brought in a wheel-
barrow to the village, where a round dance takes place.
About Luneburg, also, the woman who binds the last corn is
decked with a crown of corn-ears and is called the Corn-
goat.^ At Miinzesheim in Baden the reaper who cuts the
last handful of corn or oats is called the Corn-goat or the
Oats-goat.^ In the Canton St. Gall, Switzerland, the person
who cuts the last handful of corn on the field, or drives the
last harvest-waggon to the barn, is called the Corn-goat or the
Rye-goat, or simply the Goat' In the Canton Thurgau he
is called Corn-goat ; like a goat he has a bell hung round his
neck, is led in triumph, and drenched with liquor. In parts
of Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is called
Corn-goat, Oats-goat, or the like. As a rule, the man who
thus gets the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year
till the next harvest.^
According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been The com-
caught in the form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farm- crijipL' ^^^
house or barn over winter. Thus, each farm has its own Goat in
embodiment of the corn-spirit. But, according to another '^®"
view, the corn-spirit is the genius or deity, not of the corn
1 F. Panzer, op. cit. ii. pp. 228 sq., * W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald-uiid
§ 422 ; W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- Feidkulle, p. 164.
und Feldkulte, p. 163 ; Bavaria, 5 /^/^_ p, 164.
Landes- und Volkskunde des Konigreichs g £. H. Meyer, Badisches Volksleben
Bayern, iii. (Munich, 1865) p. 344- (Strasburg, 1900), p. 428.
Feldkidte, p. 163. ' ^- Mannhardt, ^«/?^,? Wald- und
3 E. H. Meyer,' Badisches Volksleben Feldkidte, pp. 164 sq.
(Strasburg, 1900), p. 428. * Ibid. p. 165.
284 THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL chap.
of one farm only, but of all the corn. Hence when the corn
on one farm is all cut, he flees to another where there is still
corn left standing. This idea is brought out in a harvest-
custom which was formerly observed in Skye. The farmer
who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a
sheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished ; the
latter in his turn, when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to
his neighbour who was still reaping ; and so the sheaf made
the round of the farms till all the corn was cut. The sheaf
was called the goabbir bhacagJi, that is, the Cripple Goat,^
The custom appears not to be extinct at the present day,
for it was reported from Skye only a few years ago. We
are told that when the crofters and small farmers are cutting
down their corn, each tries his best to finish before his
neighbour. The first to finish goes to his neighbour's field
and makes up at one end of it a bundle of sheaves in a
fanciful shape which goes by the name of the gobhar bhacach
or Lame Goat. As each man in succession finishes reaping
his field, he proceeds to set up a lame goat of this sort in
his neighbour's field where there is still corn standing. No
one likes to have the Lame Goat put in his field, " not from
any ill-luck it brings, but because it is humiliating to have it
standing there visible to all neighbours and passers-by, and
of course he cannot retaliate." ^ The corn-spirit was prob-
ably thus represented as lame because he had been crippled
by the cutting of the corn. We have seen that sometimes
the old woman who brings home the last sheaf must limp
on one foot.^ In the Bohmer Wald mountains, between
Bohemia and Bavaria, when two peasants are driving home
their corn together, they race against each other to see who
shall get home first. The village boys mark the loser in the
race, and at night they come and erect on the roof of his
house the Oats-goat, which is a colossal figure of a goat made
of straw.*
But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a goat, is
1 J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, lore objects collected in Argj'leshire,"
ii. 24, Bohn's edition, quoting The Folk-lore, vi. (1895) p. 15 1, from in-
Gentlemati's Magazine for February, formation given by Mrs. C. Nicholson.
1795. P- 124; W. Mannhardt, op. cit. ^ Above, p. 232.
p. 165. 4 W. Wz.x\v\\-SixAt, Antike Wald-und
2 R. C. Maclagan, "Notes on folk- Feldktdte, p. 165.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A GOAT 285
believed to be slain on the harvest-field by the sickle or The corn-
scythe. Thus, in the neighbourhood of Bernkastel, on the ^'a'cxoLt^
Moselle, the reapers determine by lot the order in which they on the
shall follow each other. The first is called the fore-reaper, ^gi^
the last the tail-bearer. If a reaper overtakes the man in
front he reaps past him, bending round so as to leave the
slower reaper in a patch by himself This patch is called
the Goat ; and the man for whom " the Goat is cut " in this
way, is laughed and jeered at by his fellows for the rest of
the day. When the tail-bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it
is said, " He is cutting the Goat's neck off." ^ In the neigh-
bourhood of Grenoble, before the end of the reaping, a live
goat is adorned with flowers and ribbons and allowed to run
about the field. The reapers chase it and try to catch it.
When it is caught, the farmer's wife holds it fast while the
farmer cuts off its head. The goat's flesh serves to furnish
the harvest-supper. A piece of the flesh is pickled and kept
till the next harvest, when another goat is killed. Then all
the harvesters eat of the flesh. On the same day the skin of
the goat is made into a cloak, which the farmer, who works
with his men, must always wear at harvest-time if rain or
bad weather sets in. But if a reaper gets pains in his back,
the farmer gives him the goat-skin to wear.^ The reason
for this seems to be that the pains in the back, being inflicted
by the corn-spirit, can also be healed by it. Similarly, we
saw that elsewhere, when a reaper is wounded at reaping, a
cat, as the representative of the corn-spirit, is made to lick
the wound.^ Esthonian reapers in the island of Mon think
that the man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will
get pains in his back,'* probably because the corn-spirit is
believed to resent especially the first wound ; and, in order to
escape pains in the back, Saxon reapers in Transylvania gird
their loins with the first handful of ears which they cuL^
Here, again, the corn-spirit is applied to for healing or pro-
1 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 166 ; Gesellschaft zii Dorpat, vii. Heft 2
id., Alytkologische Forschtmgen,^. i?>^. (Dorpat, 1872), p. 107.
2 W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und ^ G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten
FeldkiiUe, p. 166. undGebrdtuheunterdeiiSachsenSieben-
3 Above, p. 281. biirgens (Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 19.
* J. B. Holzmayer, "Osiliana," Ver- Compare W. Mannhardt, Baumkidtus,
handhiiigen der gelehrten Estnischen pp. 482 sqq.
286 THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL chap.
tection, but in his original vegetable form, not in the form of
a goat or a cat.
The corn- Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is some-
formo"a^'^ times conceivcd as lurking among the cut corn in the barn,
goat sup- till he is driven from it by the threshing-flail. Thus in
fu°rkfmon<T Baden the last sheaf to be threshed is called the Corn-goat,
the corn in the Spelt-goat, or the Oats-goat according to the kind of
tin he is' grain.^ Again, near Marktl, in Upper Bavaria, the sheaves
expelled by j^j-g called Straw-goats or simply Goats. They are laid in
threshing, a great heap on the open field and threshed by two rows
of men standing opposite each other, who, as they ply
their flails, sing a song in which they say that they see the
Straw-goat amongst the corn-stalks. The last Goat, that is,
the last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and other
flowers and with cakes strung together. It is placed right
in the middle of the heap. Some of the threshers rush at
it and tear the best of it out ; others lay on with their flails
so recklessly that heads are sometimes broken. In thresh-
ing this last sheaf, each man casts up to the man opposite
him the misdeeds of which he has been guilty throughout
the year.^ At Oberinntal, in the Tyrol, the last thresher is
called Goat.^ So at Haselberg, in West Bohemia, the man
who gives the last stroke at threshing oats is called the Oats-
goat* At Tettnang, in Wurtemburg, the thresher who
gives the last stroke to the last bundle of corn before it is
turned goes by the name of the He-goat, and it is said, " He
has driven the He-goat away." The person who, after the
bundle has been turned, gives the last stroke of all, is called
the She-goat.^ In this custom it is implied that the corn is
inhabited by a pair of corn-spirits, male and female.
The corn- Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the form of a goat at
formo^a^ threshing, is passed on to a neighbour whose threshing is not
goat passed yet finished. In Franche Comte, as soon as the threshing is
ghbour over, the young people set up a straw figure of a goat on the
^ E. L. Meyer, Badisches Volksleben * A. John, Sitte, Branch und
(Strasburg, 1900), p. 436. Volksglanbe im deiitschen Westbohmen
2 F. Panzer, Beitrag ziir dejitscheti (Prague, 1905), p. 194.
Mythologie, ii. pp. 225 sqq., § 421 ;
W. Mannhnrdt, AniikeJVa/d- itnd Fe/d- ^ E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitien
kulte, pp. 167 sq. mid Gebfcittche ausSchwaben {Stuitgart,
2 W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und 1852), p. 445, § 162 ; W. Mannhardt,
Feldkulte, p. 168. Antike IVa/d- und Feldkulte, p. 168.
on to a
nei
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A GOAT 287
farmyard of a neighbour who is still threshing. He must who has
give them wine or money in return. At Ellwangen, in 1^°' "'^ ^
VViirtemburg, the effigy of a goat is made out of the last threshing.
bundle of corn at threshing ; four sticks form its legs, and
two its horns. The man who gives the last stroke with
the flail must carry the Goat to the barn of a neighbour
who is still threshing and throw it down on the floor ; if he
is caught in the act, they tie the goat on his back.^ A
similar custom is observed at Indersdorf, in Upper Bavaria ;
the man who throws the straw Goat into the neighbour's
barn imitates the bleating of a goat ; if they catch him, they
blacken his face and tie the Goat on his back.^ At Zabern,
in Elsace, when a farmer is a week or more behind his neigh-
bours with his threshing, they set a real stuffed goat or fox
before his door.^
Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is believed The corn-
to be killed at threshing. In the district of Traunstein, toat form
Upper Bavaria, they think that the Oats-goat is in the last '^''led at
TT • 11 111 threshing.
sheaf of oats. He is represented by an old rake set up on
end, with an old pot for a head. The children are then told
to kill the Oats-goat."* Elsewhere, however, the corn-spirit
in the form of a goat is apparently thought to live in the
field throughout the winter. Hence at Wannefeld near
Gardelegen, and also between Calbe and Salzwedel, in the
Altmark, the last stalks used to be left uncut on the harvest-
field with the words, " That shall the He- goat keep ! "
Evidently the last corn was here left as a provision for the
corn-spirit, lest, robbed of all his substance, he should die of
hunger. A stranger passing a harvest -field is sometimes
taken for the Corn-goat escaping in human shape from the
cut or threshed grain. Thus, when a stranger passes a
harvest-field, all the labourers stop and shout as with one
voice, " He-goat ! He-goat ! " At rape-seed threshing in
Schleswig, which is generally done on the field, the same
cry is raised if the stranger does not take off his hat.^
1 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 169. * Ibid. p. 170.
2 F. Panzer, Beilrag zur deutscheii
Mythologie, ii. pp. 224 sq., § 420 ; ^ Ibid. p. 170. As to the custom
W. Mannhardt, AntikeWald- mid Feld- of leaving a little corn on the field for
kiilte, p. 169. the subsistence of the corn-spirit, see
^ W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 169. above, pp. 231 sqq.
288
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
Old
Prussian
custom of
killing a
goat at
sowing.
At sowing their winter corn the old Prussians used to
kill a goat, consume its flesh with many superstitious cere-
monies, and hang the skin on a high pole near an oak and
a large stone. There it remained till harvest, when a great
bunch of corn and herbs was fastened to the pole above the
goat-skin. Then, after a prayer had been offered by a peasant
who acted as priest ( Weidiilui), the young folks joined hands
and danced round the oak and the pole. Afterwards they
scrambled for the bunch of corn, and the priest distributed
the herbs with a sparing hand. Then he placed the goat-
skin on the large stone, sat down on it, and preached to the
people about the history of their forefathers and their old
heathen customs and beliefs.^ The goat-skin thus suspended
on the field from sowing time to harvest perhaps represents
the corn-spirit superintending the grov/th of the corn. The
Tomori of Central Celebes imagine that the spirits which
cause rice to grow have the form of great goats with long
hair and long lips.^
The corn-
spirit in the
form of a
bull
running
through
the corn or
lying in it.
The corn-
spirit as a
bull, ox, or
cow at
harvest.
§ 7. The Corn- spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox
Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that
of a bull, cow, or ox. When the wind sweeps over the corn
they say at Conitz, in West Prussia, " The Steer is running
in the corn " ; ^ when the corn is thick and strong in one
spot, they say in some parts of East Prussia, " The Bull is
lying in the corn." When a harvester has overstrained and
lamed himself, they say in the Graudenz district of West
Prussia, " The Bull pushed him " ; in Lothringen they say,
" He has the Bull." The meaning of both expressions is
that he has unwittingly lighted upon the divine corn-spirit,
who has punished the profane intruder with lameness.* So
near Chambdry when a reaper wounds himself with his
sickle, it is said that he has " the wound of the Ox." ^ In
' M. Praetorius, Deliciae Prussicae
(Berlin, 187 1), pp. 23 sq. ; W. Mann-
hardt, Baumkultus, pp. 394 sq.
^ A. C. Kruijt, " Eenige ethno-
grafische aanteekeningen omtrent de
Toboengkoe en de Tomori," Mede-
deelingen van ivege het Nederlandsche
Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) p.
241.
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen, p. 58.
4 Ibid
5 Ibid. p. 62.
viii THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A BULL, COW, OR OX 2S9
the district of Bunzlau (Silesia) the last sheaf is sometimes
made into the shape of a horned ox, stuffed with tow and
wrapt in corn -ears. This figure is called the Old Man.
In some parts of Bohemia the last sheaf is made up in
human form and called the Buffalo-bull.^ These cases shew
a confusion of the human with the animal shape of the corn-
spirit. The confusion is like that of killing a wether under
the name of a wolf.^ In the Canton of Thurgau, Switzer-
land, the last sheaf, if it is a large one, is called the Cow.^
All over Swabia the last bundle of corn on the field is called
the Cow ; the man who cuts the last ears " has the Cow,"
and is himself called Cow or Barley-cow or Oats-cow, accord-
ing to the crop ; at the harvest-supper he gets a nosegay of
flowers and corn-ears and a more liberal allowance of drink
than the rest. But he is teased and laughed at ; so no one
likes to be the Cow."* The Cow was sometimes represented
by the figure of a woman made out of ears of corn and corn-
flowers. It was carried to the farmhouse by the man who
had cut the last handful of corn. The children ran after
him and the neighbours turned out to laugh at him, till the
farmer took the Cow from him.^ Here again the confusion
between the human and the animal form of the corn-spirit is
apparent. In various parts of Switzerland the reaper who
cuts the last ears of corn is called Wheat-cow, Corn-cow,
Oats-cow, or Corn-steer, and is the butt of many a joke.^
In some parts of East Prussia, when a few ears of corn have
been left standing by inadvertence on the last swath, the
foremost reaper seizes them and cries, " Bull ! Bull ! " ^ On
the other hand, in the district of Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria,
when a farmer is later of getting in his harvest than his
neighbours, they set up on his land a Straw-bull, as it is
called. This is a gigantic figure of a bull made of stubble
on a framework of wood and adorned with flowers and
leaves. Attached to it is a label on which are scrawled
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Mythologie, ii. p. 234, § 428 ; W.
Forschungen, p. 59. Mannhardt, A/j't/io/ogisc/ieForsc/i/t/igeu,
2 Above, p. 275. p. 59.
3 W. Mannhardt, o/>. cit. p. 59. ^ F. Panzer, op. cit. ii. p. 233, §
-• E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten 427 ; W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
iind Gebrduche aus Schzvaben (Stutt- Forschungen, p. 59.
j^art, 1852), pp. 440 sq., §§ 151, 152, ^ W. Mannhardt, op. r//. pp. 59 sq.
153; F. Y?mze.x, Beitragzur deutschen ^ Ibid. p. 58.
PT. V. VOL. I U
290
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit in the
form of a
bull or ox
killed at
the close
of the
reaping.
The corn-
spirit as a
bull or
cow at
threshing.
doggerel verses in ridicule of the man on whose land the
Straw-bull is set up.-^
Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox is
killed on the harvest-field at the close of the reaping. At
Pouilly, near Dijon, when the last ears of corn are about to
be cut, an ox adorned with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn
is led all round the field, followed by the whole troop of
reapers dancing. Then a man disguised as the Devil cuts
the last ears of corn and immediately slaughters the ox.
Part of the flesh of the animal is eaten at the harvest-
supper ; part is pickled and kept till the first day of sowing
in spring. At Pont a Mousson and elsewhere on the evening
of the last day of reaping, a calf adorned with flowers and
ears of corn is led thrice round the farmyard, being allured
by a bait or driven by men with sticks, or conducted by the
farmer's wife with a rope. The calf chosen for this ceremony
is the calf which was born first on the farm in the spring of
the year. It is followed by all the reapers with their tools.
Then it is allowed to run free ; the reapers chase it, and
whoever catches it is called King of the Calf. Lastly, it is
solemnly killed ; at Luneville the man who acts as butcher
is the Jewish merchant of the village.^
Sometimes again the corn-spirit hides himself amongst
the cut corn in the barn to reappear in bull or cow form at
threshing. Thus at Wurmlingen, in Thiiringen, the man who
gives the last stroke at threshing is called the Cow, or rather
the Barley-cow, Oats-cow, Peas-cow, or the like, according
to the crop. He is entirely enveloped in straw ; his head
is surmounted by sticks in imitation of horns, and two lads
lead him by ropes to the well to drink. On the way thither
he must low like a cow, and for a long time afterwards he
goes by the name of the Cow.^ At Obermedlingen, in
Swabia, when the threshing draws near an end, each man
is careful to avoid giving the last stroke. He who does give
it " gets the Cow," which is a straw figure dressed in an old
ragged petticoat, hood, and stockings. It is tied on his back
* W. Mannhardt, Mythologlsche
Forschungen, pp. 58 sq.
2 Ibid. p. 60.
3 E. Meier, Deutsche Sage ft, Siiten
tind Gebrduche aus Sckwahen, pp. 444
sq., § 162; W. Mannhardt, Mytho-
loglsche Forschungen, p. 61.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A BULL, COW, OR OX 291
with a straw-rope ; his face is blackened, and being bound
with straw-ropes to a wheelbarrow he is wheeled round
the village.^ Here, again, we meet with that confusion
between the human and animal shape of the corn-spirit
which we have noted in other customs. In Canton Schaff-
hausen the man who threshes the last corn is called the
Cow ; in Canton Thurgau, the Corn-bull ; in Canton Zurich,
the Thresher-cow. In the last-mentioned district he is
wrapt in straw and bound to one of the trees in the orchard.^
At Arad, in Hungary, the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is enveloped in straw and a cow's hide with the
horns attached to it.^ At Pessnitz, in the district of Dresden,
the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called
Bull. He must make a straw-man and set it up before a
neighbour's window.* Here, apparently, as in so many
cases, the corn-spirit is passed on to a neighbour who has
not finished threshing. So at Herbrechtingen, in Thiiringen,
the effigy of a ragged old woman is flung into the barn of
the farmer who is last with his threshing. The man who
throws it in cries, " There is the Cow for you." If the
threshers catch him they detain him over night and punish
him by keeping him from the harvest-supper.""* In these
latter customs the confusion between the human and the
animal shape of the corn-spirit meets us again.
Further, the corn-spirit in bull form is sometimes believed The corn-
to be killed at threshing. At Auxerre, in threshing the last fj^m jffjj"^
bundle of corn, they call out twelve times, " We are killing buu sup-
the Bull." In the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where a ^°ifg^ ^j
butcher kills an ox on the field immediately after the close threshing.
of the reaping, it is said of the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing that "he has killed the Bull."*' At
Chambery the last sheaf is called the sheaf of the Young
Ox, and a race takes place to it in which all the reapers
join. When the last stroke is given at threshing they
say that " the Ox is killed " ; and immediately thereupon
1 F. Panzer, Beitrag zttr detitschen ^ E. Meier, Deutsche Sageti, Sitten
Mythologie, ii. p. 233, § 427. itnd Gebrduche aus Sckwabeii, pp. 445
2 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische sq., § 163.
Forschunge7i, pp. 61 sq.
•^ Ibid. p. 62. * W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
* Ibid. p. 62. Forschungen, p. 60.
292
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
calf at
harvest or
in spring.
a real ox is slaughtered by the reaper who cut the last
corn. The flesh of the ox is eaten by the threshers at
supper.^
The corn- We have seen that sometimes the young corn-spirit,
Sf'lr ^ whose task it is to quicken the corn of the coming year, is
believed to be born as a Corn-baby on the harvest-field.^
Similarly in Berry the young corn -spirit is sometimes
supposed to be born on the field in calf form ; for when a
binder has not rope enough to bind all the corn in sheaves,
he puts aside the wheat that remains over and imitates the
lowing of a cow. The meaning is that " the sheaf has given
birth to a calf." ^ In Puy-de-D6me when a binder cannot
keep up with the reaper whom he or she follows, they say
" He (or she) is giving birth to the Calf." * In some parts of
Prussia, in similar circumstances, they call out to the woman,
" The Bull is coming," and imitate the bellowing of a bull.^
In these cases the woman is conceived as the Corn-cow or
old corn-spirit, while the supposed calf is the Corn-calf or
young corn-spirit. In some parts of Austria a mythical calf
{Muhkdlbchen) is believed to be seen amongst the sprouting
corn in spring and to push the children ; when the corn waves
in the wind they say, " The Calf is going about." Clearly, as
Mannhardt observes, this calf of the spring-time is the same
animal which is afterwards believed to be killed at reaping.^
The corn-
spirit as a
horse or
mare
running
through
the corn.
"Crying
the Mare ' '
in Hert-
fordshire
and Shrop-
shire.
S 8. The Corn-Spirit as a Horse or Mare
Sometimes the corn-spirit appears in the shape of a
horse or mare. Between Kalw and Stuttgart, when the corn
bends before the wind, they say, " There runs the Horse." ^
At Bohlingen, near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf of
oats is called the Oats-stallion.^ In Hertfordshire, at the
end of the reaping, there is or used to be observed a ceremony
called " crying the Mare." The last blades of corn left
standine: on the field are tied together and called the Mare.
1 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 62.
2 Above, pp. 150 sq.
3 Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et
L^gendes du Centre de la France (Paris,
1875), ii. 135.
^ W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungen, p. 62: '^ II fait ieveatt."
6 Ibid.
6 Ibid. p. 63.
7 Ibid. p. 167.
^ E. H. Meyer, Badisches Volkslebcii
(Strasburg, 1900), p. 42S.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A HORSE OR MARE 293
The reapers stand at a distance and throw their sickles at
it ; he who cuts it through " has the prize, with acclamations
and good cheer." After it is cut the reapers cry thrice with
a loud voice, " I have her ! " Others answer thrice, " What
have you ? " — " A Mare ! a Mare ! a Mare ! " — " Whose is
she ? " is next asked thrice. " A. B.'s," naming the owner
thrice. " Whither will you send her ? " — " Tc C. D.," naming
some neighbour who has not reaped all his corn.^ In this
custom the corn-spirit in the form of a mare is passed on
from a farm where the corn is all cut to another farm where
it is still standing, and where therefore the corn-spirit may
be supposed naturally to take refuge. In Shropshire the
custom is similar. " Crying, calling, or shouting the mare is
a ceremony performed by the men of that farm which is the
first in any parish or district to finish the harvest. The
object of it is to make known their own prowess, and to
taunt the laggards by a pretended offer of the ' owd mar' '
[old mare] to help out their ' chem ' [team]. All the men
assemble (the wooden harvest-bottle being of course one of
the company) in the stackyard, or, better, on the highest
ground on the farm, and there shout the following dialogue,
preceding it by a grand ' Hip, hip, hip, hurrah ! '
" ' I 'ave 'er, I 'ave 'er, I 'ave 'er ! '
" ' Whad 'ast thee, whad 'ast thee, whad 'ast thee ? '
" ' A mar' ! a mar' ! a mar' ! '
" ' Whose is 'er, whose is 'er, whose is 'er ? '
" ' Maister A.'s, Maister A.'s, Maister A.'s ! ' (naming the
farmer whose harvest is finished).
" * W'eer sha't the' send 'er ? w'eer sha't the' send 'er ?
w'eer sha't the' send 'er ? '
"'To Maister B.'s, to Maister B.'s, to Maister B.'s'
(naming one whose harvest is not finished).
" ' 'Uth a hip, hip, hip, hurrah ! ' (in chorus)."
The farmer who finishes his harvest last, and who
therefore cannot send the Mare to any one else, is said
" to keep her all winter." The mocking offer of the Mare
was sometimes responded to by a mocking acceptance of
her help. Thus an old man told an enquirer, " While we
wun at supper, a mon cumm'd wi' a autar [halter] to fatch
1 J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 24, Bohn's edition.
294
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit as a
horse in
France.
her away." But at one place (Longnor, near Leebotwood),
down to about 1850, the Mare used really to be sent.
" The head man of the farmer who had finished harvest
first was mounted on the best horse of the team — the
leader — both horse and man being adorned with ribbons,
streamers, etc. Thus arrayed, a boy on foot led the pair in
triumph to the neighbouring farmhouses. Sometimes the
man who took the ' mare ' received, as well as plenty of
harvest-ale, some rather rough, though good-humoured, treat-
ment, coming back minus his decorations, and so on." ^
In the neighbourhood of Lille the idea of the corn-spirit
in horse form is clearly preserved. When a harvester grows
weary at his work, it is said, " He has the fatigue of the
Horse." The first sheaf, called the " Cross of the Horse," is
placed on a cross of boxwood in the barn, and the youngest
horse on the farm must tread on it. The reapers dance
round the last blades of corn, crying, " See the remains of the
Horse." The sheaf made out of these last blades is given
to the youngest horse of the parish {coinmune) to eat. This
youngest horse of the parish clearly represents, as Mannhardt
says, the corn -spirit of the following year, the Corn-foal,
which absorbs the spirit of the old Corn-horse by eating the
last corn cut ; for, as usual, the old corn-spirit takes his
final refuge in the last sheaf The thresher of the last
sheaf is said to " beat the Horse." ^ Again, a trace of the
horse - shaped corn - spirit is reported from Berry. The
harvesters there are accustomed to take a noonday nap
in the field. This is called " seeing the Horse." The leader
or " King " of the harvesters gives the signal for going to
sleep. If he delays giving the signal, one of the harvesters
will begin to neigh like a horse, the rest imitate him, and
then they all go " to see the Horse." ^
^ C. F. Burne and G. F. Jackson,
Shropshire Folk-lore (London, 1883),
PP; 373 sq-
^ W. Mannhardt, MythoJogische
Forschungen, p. 167. We may com-
pare the Scotch custom of giving the
last sheaf to a horse or mare to eat.
See above, pp. 141, 156, 158, \6o sq.,
162
^ Laisnel de la Salle, Croyances et
L^gcndes du Centre de la France (Paris,
1875), ii. 133 ; W. Mannhardt,
Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 167 sq.
We have seen (above, p. 267) that in
South Pembrokeshire the man who cut
the " Neck " used to he " shod," that
is, to have the soles of his feet severely
beaten with sods. Perhaps he was
thus treated as representing the corn-
spirit in the form of a horse.
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A BIRD 295
^ 9. The Corn-spirit as a Bird
Sometimes the corn-spirit assumes the form of a bird. The com-
Thus among the Saxons of the Bistritz district in Transyl- ^P""'^^'^^
>=> ^ -^ a quail.
vania there is a saying that the quail is sitting in the last
standing stalks on the harvest-field, and all the reapers rush
at these stalks in order, as they say, to catch the quail.^
Exactly the same expression is used by reapers in Austrian
Silesia when they are about to cut the last standing corn,
whatever the kind of grain may be.^ In the Bocage of
Normandy, when the reapers have come to the last ears of
the last rig, they surround them for the purpose of catching
the quail, which is supposed to have taken refuge there. They
run about the corn crying, " Mind the Quail ! " and make
believe to grab at the bird amid shouts and laughter.^
Connected with this identification of the corn-spirit with a
quail is probably the belief that the cry of the bird in spring
is prophetic of the price of corn in the autumn ; in Germany
they say that corn will sell at as many gulden a bushel as
the quail uttered its cry over the fields in spring. Similar
prognostications are drawn from the note of the bird in
central and western France, in Switzerland and in Tuscany.* •
Perhaps one reason for identifying the quail with the corn-
spirit is that the bird lays its eggs on the ground, without
making much of a nest.^ Similarly the Toradjas of Central The rice-
Celebes think that the soul of the rice is embodied in a X^bird
pretty little blue bird which builds its nest in the rice-field
at the time when the rice is beginning to germinate, and
which disappears again after the harvest. Thus both the
place and the time of the appearance of the bird suggest to
the natives the notion that the blue bird is the rice incarnate.
And like the note of the quail in Europe the note of this
1 G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten * A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volks
tiiid Gebrdttche unter den Sachsen aberglaube"^ (Berlin, 1869), p. 189,
Siebenburgens (Hermannstadt, 1880), §277; Chr. Schneller, Mdrchen tind
p. 21. Sagen aus IVahchtirol (Innsbruck,
2 A. Peter, Volksthumliches aus 1867), p. 238; Rev. Ch. Swainson,
Osterreichisch - Schlesien (Troppau, The Folk Lore and Proinncial Names of
1865-1867), ii. 268. British Birds (London, 1886), p. 173.
3 T- Lecoeur, Esquisses du Bocage ^ Alfred Newton, Dictionary of
Norma7id (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883- Birds, New Edition (London, 1893-
1S87), ii. 240. 1896), p. 755.
ig6
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The rice-
spirit as
a quail.
little bird in Celebes is believed to prognosticate the state
of the harvest, foretelling whether the rice will be abundant
or scarce. Nobody may drive the bird away ; to do so
would not merely injure the rice, it would hurt the eyes of
the sacrilegious person and might even strike him blind.
In Minahassa, a district in the north of Celebes, a similar
though less definite belief attaches to a sort of small quail
which loves to haunt the rice-fields before the rice is reaped ;
and when the Galelareeze of Halmahera hear a certain kind
of bird, which they call toge, croaking among the rice in ear,
they say that the bird is putting the grain into the rice, so
they will not kill it.^
The corn-
spirit as
a fox
running
through
the corn or
sitting in it.
The corn-
spirit as a
fox at
reaping
the last
^ 10. TJie Corn-Spirit as a Fox
Another animal whose shape the corn-spirit is sometimes
thought to assume is the fox. The conception is recorded
at various places in Germany and France. Thus at Nord-
lingen in Bavaria, when the corn waves to and fro in the
wind, they say, " The fox goes through the corn," and at
Usingen in Nassau they say, " The foxes are marching
through the corn." At Ravensberg, in Westphalia, and at
Steinau, in Kurhessen, children are warned against straying
in the corn, " because the Fox is there." At Campe, near
Stade, when they are about to cut the last corn, they call
out to the reaper, " The Fox is sitting there, hold him fast ! "
In the Department of the Moselle they say, " Watch
whether the Fox comes out." In Bourbonnais the ex-
pression is, ' You will catch the Fox." When a reaper
wounds himself or is sick at reaping, they say in the Lower
Loire that " He has the Fox." In Cote-d'or they say, " He
has killed the Fox." At Louhans, in Saone-et-Loire, when
the reapers are cutting the last corn they leave a handful
standing and throw their sickles at it. He who hits it is
called the Fox, and two girls deck his bonnet with flowers.
1 A. C. Kruijt, " Eenige ethno-
grafische aanteekeningen omtrent de
Toboengkoe en de Tomori," Mede-
deelirigen vati wege het Ncderlandsche
Zendelinggenootschap, xliv. (1900) pp.
228, 229 ; id., " De rijstmoeder in den
Indischen Archipel," Verslageii en
Mededeelingeii van der koninklijke
Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeel-
ing Letterkunde, Vierde Reeks, v.,
part 3 (Amsterdam, 1903), pp. 374
sq.
viii THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A FOX 297
In the evening there is a dance, at which the Fox dances
with all the girls. The supper which follows is also called
the Fox ; they say, " VVe have eaten the Fox," meaning that
they have partaken of the harvest-supper. In the Canton
of Zurich the last sheaf is called the Fox. At Bourgogne,
in Ain, they cry out, " The Fox is sitting in the last sheaf,"
and having made the figure of an animal out of white cloth
and some ears of the last corn, they dub it the Fox and
throw it into the house of a neighbour who has not yet got
in all his harvest.^ In Poitou, when the corn is being
reaped in a district, all the reapers strive to finish as quickly
as possible in order that they may send " the Fox " to the
fields of a farmer who has not yet garnered his sheaves.
The man who cuts the last handful of standing corn is said
to "have the Fox." This last handful is carried to the
farmer's house and occupies a place on the table during the
harvest-supper ; and the custom is to drench it with water.
After that it is set up on the chimney-piece and remains
there the whole year.^ At threshing, also, in Saone-et- The corn-
Loire, the last sheaf is called the Fox; in Lot they say, fo"'at^^^
" We are going to beat the Fox " ; and at Zabern in Alsace threshing.
they set a stuffed fox before the door of the threshing-floor
of a neighbour who has not finished his threshing.^ With
this conception of the fox as an embodiment of the corn-
spirit may possibly be connected an old custom, observed in
Holstein and Westphalia, of carrying a dead or living fox
from house to house in spring ; the intention of the custom
was perhaps to diffuse the refreshing and invigorating
influence of the reawakened spirit of vegetation.* In Japan The
the rice-god Inari is represented as an elderly man with a Ji^P^n^sc
° ^ ■' ^ rice-god
long beard riding on a white fox, and the fox is always associated
associated with this deity. In front of his shrines may ^'^'^ '^^'^
usually be seen a pair of foxes carved in wood or stone.^
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologisclie Alythologische Forschungcii,^.\iono\.e.
Forschuiigen, p. 109 note ^. ^ Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Uii-
2 L. Pineau, Folk-lore dii Poitou familiar Japan (London, 1894), ii.
(Paris, 1892), pp. 500 sq. 312 sqq. ; W. G. Aston, Shinto
3 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische (London, 1905), pf. 162 sq. At the
Forsclumgen, pp. 109 sq., note ^. festival of the Roman corn -goddess
* J. F. L. Woeste, VblksUberliefer- Ceres, celebrated on the nineteenth of
tingen in der Grafschaft Mark (Iser- April, foxes were allowed to run about
lohn, 1848), p. 27; W. Mannhardt, with burning torches tied to their tails,
298
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit as
a boar
rushing
through
the corn.
The corn-
spirit as a
boar or
sow at
reaping.
The corn-
spirit as a
sow at
threshing.
^11. The Corn -Spirit as a Pig {Boar or Sow)
The last animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we
shall notice is the pig (boar or sow). In Thliringen, when
the wind sets the young corn in motion, they sometimes say,
" The Boar is rushing through the corn." ^ Amongst the
Esthonians of the island of Oesel the last sheaf is called the
Rye-boar, and the man who gets it is saluted with a cry of
"You have the Rye-boar on your back!" In reply he
strikes up a song, in which he prays for plenty.^ At
Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the close of the harvest,
the last bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk by stalk,
by all the reapers in turn. He who cuts the last stalk " gets
the Sow," and is laughed at.^ In other Swabian villages
also the man who cuts the last corn " has the Sow," or " has
the Rye-sow." * In the Traunstein district, Upper Bavaria,
the man who cuts the last handful of rye or wheat " has
the Sow," and is called Sow-driver.^ At Bohlingen, near
Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf is called the Rye-sow or
the Wheat-sow, according to the crop ; and at Rohrenbach
in Baden the person who brings the last armful for the last
sheaf is called the Corn-sow or the Oats-sow. And in the
south-east of Baden the thresher who gives the last stroke at
threshing, or is the last to hang up his flail on the wall, is
called the Sow or the Rye-sow.^ At Friedingen, in Swabia,
the thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow —
Barley-sow, Corn-sow, or the like, according to the crop.
and the custom was explained as a
punishment inflicted on foxes because
a fox had once in this way burned
down the crops (Ovid, Fasti, iv.
679 sqq.). Samson is said to have
burned the crops of the Philistines in
a similar fashion (Judges xv. 4 sq.).
Whether the custom and the tradition
are connected with the idea of the fox
as an embodiment of the corn-spirit is
doubtful. Compare W. Mannhardt,
Mythologische Forschungen,^-^. 10% sq. ;
W. Warde Fowler, Ronian Festivals
of the Period of the Repiblic (London,
1899), pp. 77-79-
^ A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und
Gebrduche aus Thiiriiigen (Vienna,
1878), p. 213, § 4. So at Klepzig, in
Anhalt {Zeitschrifc des Vereins fiir
Volkskunde, vii. (1897) p. 150).
2 J. B. Holzmayer, "Osiliana," Ver-
handhtngoi der geleh?-ten Estnischen
Gesellschaft zn Dorpat,\\\. Heft 2 (Dor-
pat, 1872), p. 107 ; W. Mannhardt,
Mythologische Forschwigen, p. 187.
^ A. Birlinger, Aus Sckwaben{y^i&s-
baden, 1874), ii. 328.
* V. Panzer, Beitrag ziir deutschen
Mythologie (Munich, 1848- 1855), ii.
pp. 223, 224, §§ 417, 419.
» W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschuugen, p. 112.
^ E. L. Meyer, Badisches Volksleben
(Strasburg, 1900), pp. 428, 436.
vin THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A PIG 299
At Onstmettingen the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing " has the Sow " ; he is often bound up in a sheaf
and dragged by a rope along the ground/ And, generally,
in Swabia the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is
called Sow. He may, however, rid himself of this invidious
distinction by passing on to a neighbour the straw-rope,
which is the badge of his position as Sow. So he goes to a
house and throws the straw-rope into it, crying, " There, I
bring you the Sow." All the inmates give chase ; and if
they catch him they beat him, shut him up for several hours
in the pig-sty, and oblige him to take the " Sow " away
again.^ In various parts of Upper Bavaria the man who
gives the last stroke at threshing must " carry the Pig " — that
is, either a straw effigy of a pig or merely a bundle of straw-
ropes. This he carries to a neighbouring farm where the
threshing is not finished, and throws it into the barn. If the
threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating him,
blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into filth,
binding the Sow on his back, and so on ; if the bearer of
the Sow is a woman they cut off her hair. At the harvest
supper or dinner the man who " carried the Pig " gets one
or more dumplings made in the form of pigs ; sometimes he
gets a large dumpling and a number of small ones, all in
pig form, the large one being called the sow and the small
ones the sucking-pigs. Sometimes he has the right to be
the first to put his hand into the dish and take out as many
small dumplings (" sucking-pigs ") as he can, while the other
threshers strike at his hand with spoons or sticks. When
the dumplings are served up by the maid-servant, all the
people at table cry " Siiz, siiz, siiz ! " that being the cry used
in calling pigs. Sometimes after dinner the man who " carried
the Pig " has his face blackened, and is set on a cart and
drawn round the village by his fellows, followed by a crowd
crying " Siiz, siiz, siiz ! " as if they were calling swine.
Sometimes, after being wheeled round the village, he is flung
on the dunghill.^
1 E. Meier, Deutsche Sageit, Sitten ^C/^wai^^w ( Freiburg im Breisgau, 1S61-
U7id Gebrdtiche aus Schwaben (^VoM^zxt, 1S62), ii. p. 425, § 379-
1852), p. 445, § 162. ^ F. Panzer, Beitrag ziir detdschen
Mythologie, ii. pp. 221-224, §§ 409>
2 A. Birlinger, Volksthiimliches aiis 410, 41 1, 412, 413, 414, 415, 418.
300
THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
The corn-
spirit as
a pig at
sowing.
The corn-
spirit em-
bodied in
the Yule
Boar of
Scandi-
navia.
Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his part
at sowing-time as well as at harvest. At Neuautz, in Cour-
land, when barley is sown for the first time in the year, the
farmer's wife boils the chine of a pig along with the tail,
and brings it to the sower on the field. He eats of it, but
cuts off the tail and sticks it in the field ; it is believed that
the ears of corn will then grow as long as the tail.^ Here
the pig is the corn-spirit, whose fertilising power is some-
times supposed to lie especially in his tail.^ As a pig he is
put in the ground at sowing-time, and as a pig he reappears
amongst the ripe corn at harvest. For amongst the neigh-
bouring Esthonians, as we have seen,^ the last sheaf is called
the Rye-boar. Somewhat similar customs are observed in
Germany. In the Salza district, near Meiningen, a certain
bone in the pig is called " the Jew on the winnowing-fan."
The flesh of this bone is boiled on Shrove Tuesday, but the
bone is put amongst the ashes which the neighbours ex-
change as presents on St. Peter's Day (the twenty-second of
February), and then mix with the seed-corn.^ In the whole
of Hesse, Meiningen, and other districts, people eat pea-soup
with dried pig-ribs on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas. The
ribs are then collected and hung in the room till sowing-time,
when they are inserted in the sown field or in the seed-bag
amongst the flax seed. This is thought to be an infallible
specific against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax
to grow well and tall.^ In many parts of White Russia
people eat a roast lamb or sucking-pig at Easter, and then
throw the bones backwards upon the fields, to preserve the
corn from hail.^
But the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form
is nowhere more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian
custom of the Yule Boar. In Sweden and Denmark at
Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to bake a loaf in the form
of a boar-pig. This is called the Yule Boar. The corn of
1 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschungeii, pp. i86 sq.
2 Above, p. 272 ; compare 268.
^ Above, p. 298.
* W. Mannhardt, op. at. p. 1S7.
^ W. Mannhardt, op. cit. pp. 187
sq. ; A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten tiiid
Gebrduche aits Thiiringen, pp. 189,
218; W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-
Stt/en Jtnd Gebrduche (Marburg, 1888),
P- 35-
6 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische
Forschitngen, p. 1S8 ; W. R. S. Ral-
ston, Songs of the Russian People
(London, 1872), p. 220.
viii THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A PIG 301
the last sheaf is often used to make it. All through Yule
the Yule Boar stands on the table. Often it is kept till the
sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the
seed-corn and part given to the ploughmen and plough-
horses or plough-oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good
harvest.^ In this custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the
last sheaf, appears at midwinter in the form of a boar made
from the corn of the last sheaf; and his quickening influence
on the corn is shewn by mixing part of the Yule Boar with
the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the ploughman and
his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that the Corn -wolf
makes his appearance at midwinter, the time when the year
begins to verge towards spring.^ We may conjecture that The Vuie
the Yule straw, which Swedish peasants turn to various '^^'^^^^ '"
superstitious uses, comes, in part at least, from the sheaf out
of which the Yule Boar is made. The Yule straw is long
rye-straw, a portion of which is always set apart for this
season. It is strewn over the floor at Christmas, and the
peasants attribute many virtues to it. For example, they
think that some of it scattered on the ground will make a
barren field productive. Again, the peasant at Christmas
seats himself on a log ; and his eldest son or daughter, or the
mother herself, if the children are not old enough, places a
wisp of the Yule straw on his knee. From this he draws
out single straws, and throws them, one by one, up to the
ceiling ; and as many as lodge in the rafters, so many will
be the sheaves of rye he will have to thresh at harvest.^
Again, it is only the Yule straw which may be used in bind-
ing the fruit-trees as a charm to fertilise them.^ These uses
of the Yule straw shew that it is believed to possess fertilis-
ing virtues analogous to those ascribed to the Yule Boar ;
we may therefore fairly conjecture that the Yule straw is
1 W. Mannhardt, Antike IVald-tmd Ungewitter (Leipsic, 1842), i. 9.
Feldkulte, pp. 197 sq. ; F. Panzer, ^ Above, p. 275.
Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. ^ L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden
491 ; J. Jamieson, Etytnological (London, 1870), pp. 169 sq., 182.
Dictionary of the Scottish Language, On Christmas night children sleep on
New Edition (Paisley, 1879-1882), a bed of the Yule straw (/^/(/. p. 177).
vol. iii. pp. 206 sq., s.v. "Maiden"; * U. Jahn, Die dentschen Opfer-
Arv. Aug. Afzelius, Volkssagen iind gebrdnche (Breslau, 1884), p. 215.
Volkslieder aus Schwedens dlterer und Compare The Magic Art and the
neuerer Zeit, iibersetzt von F. H. Evolution of Rings, ii. 17, 27 j^.
302 THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL chap.
made from the same slieaf as the Yule Boar. Formerly a
real boar was sacrificed at Christmas/ and apparently also
a man in the character of the Yule Boar. This, at least,
may perhaps be inferred from a Christmas custom still
observed in Sweden. A man is wrapt up in a skin, and
carries a wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the projecting
straws look like the bristles of a boar. A knife is brought,
and an old woman, with her face blackened, pretends to
sacrifice him."
The Christ- On Christmas Eve in some parts of the Esthonian
TmoifThe island of Oesel they bake a long cake with the two ends
Esthonians turned up. It IS Called the Christmas Boar, and stands
on the table till the morning of New Year's Day, when
it is distributed among the cattle. In other parts of the
island the Christmas Boar is not a cake but a little pig
born in March, which the housewife fattens secretly, often
without the knowledge of the other members of the family.
On Christmas Eve the little pig is secretly killed, then
roasted in the oven, and set on the table standing on all
fours, where it remains in this posture for several days. In
other parts of the island, again, though the Christmas cake
has neither the name nor the shape of a boar, it is kept till
the New Year, when half of it is divided among all the
members and all the quadrupeds of the family. The other
half of the cake is kept till sowing-time comes round, when
it is similarly distributed in the morning among human
beings and beasts.^ In other parts of Esthonia, again, the
Christmas Boar, as it is called, is baked of the first rye cut
at harvest ; it has a conical shape and a cross is impressed
on it with a pig's bone or a key, or three dints are made in
it with a buckle or a piece of charcoal. It stands with a
light beside it on the table all through the festal season.
On New Year's Day and Epiphany, before sunrise, a little of
the cake is crumbled with salt and given to the cattle. The
rest is kept till the day when the cattle are driven out to
pasture for the first time in spring. It is then put in the
^ A. A. Afzelius, op. cit. i. 31. ^ J. B. Holzmayer, " Osiliana," Ver-
^ A. A. Afzelius, o/>. cit. i. g ; L. Jiandliingen der geleh-ten Estnischen
Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden, pp. Gescllschaft zu Dorpat, vii. Heft 2
181, 185. (Dorpat, 1872), pp. 55 sq.
VIII THE CORN-SPIRIT AS A PIG 303
herdsman's bag, and at evening is divided among the cattle
to guard them from magic and harm. In some places the
Christmas Boar is partaken of by farm-servants and cattle
at the time of the barley sowing, for the purpose of thereby
producing a heavier crop.^
^ 12. On the Animal Ejiibodimejits of the Corn-spirit
So much for the animal embodiments of the corn-spirit Sacra-
as they are presented to us in the folk-customs of Northern ^^^^^^
^ character
Europe. These customs bring out clearly the sacramental of the
character of the harvest-supper. The corn-spirit is conceived ^=^''^'"^"
as embodied in an animal ; this divine animal is slain, and
its flesh and blood are partaken off by the harvesters. Thus,
the cock, the goose, the hare, the cat, the goat, and the ox
are eaten sacramentally by the harvesters, and the pig is
eaten sacramentally by ploughmen in spring.^ Again, as
a substitute for the real flesh of the divine being, bread or
dumplings are made in his image and eaten sacramentally ;
thus, pig-shaped dumplings are eaten by the harvesters, and
loaves made in boar-shape (the Yule Boar) are eaten in
spring by the ploughman and his cattle.
The reader has probably remarked the complete parallel- Parallelism
ism between the conceptions of the corn-spirit in human '^^tweenthe
^ ^ concep-
and in animal form. The parallel may be here briefly tions of the
resumed. When the corn waves in the wind it is said i^nhiiman'
either that the Corn-mother or that the Corn-wolf, etc., and animal
is passing through the corn. Children are warned against
straying in corn-fields either because the Corn-mother or
because the Corn-wolf, etc., is there. In the last corn cut or
the last sheaf threshed either the Corn-mother or the Corn-
wolf, etc., is supposed to be present. The last sheaf is itself
called either the Corn-mother or the Corn-wolf, etc., and is
made up in the shape either of a woman or of a wolf, etc.
The person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last sheaf is
called either the Old Woman or the Wolf, etc., according to
1 F. J.Wiedemann, Aiisdeni innereii 290, 300, 301. In regard to the hare,
und dussern Leben der Ehsten (St. the substitution of brandy for hare's
Petersburg, 1876), pp. 344, 485. blood is probably modern.
2 Above, pp. 277 j-^., 280, 281, 285,
304 THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL chap.
the name bestowed on the sheaf itself. As in some places
a sheaf made in human form and called the Maiden, the
Mother of the Maize, etc., is kept from one harvest to the
next in order to secure a continuance of the corn-spirit's
blessing ; so in some places the Harvest-cock and in others
the flesh of the goat is kept for a similar purpose from one
harvest to the next. As in some places the grain taken
from the Corn-mother is mixed with the seed-corn in spring
to make the crop abundant ; so in some places the feathers
of the cock, and in Sweden the Yule Boar, are kept till spring
and mixed with the seed-corn for a like purpose. As part
of the Corn-mother or Maiden is given to the cattle at
Christmas or to the horses at the first ploughing, so part of
the Yule Boar is given to the ploughing horses or oxen in
spring. Lastly, the death of the corn-spirit is represented by
killing or pretending to kill either his human or his animal
representative ; and the worshippers partake sacramentally
either of the actual body and blood of the representative
of the divinity, or of bread made in his likeness.
The reason Other animal forms assumed by the corn-spirit are the
^m-spWt ^^^?' ^°^' sheep, bear, ass, mouse, stork, swan, and kite.^
is thought If it is asked why the corn -spirit should be thought to
forms 'of so appear in the form of an animal and of so many different
many ani- animals, wc may reply that to primitive man the simple
be that wild appearance of an animal or bird among the corn is probably
creatures euough to suggcst a mystcHOUs link between the creature
moniy and the corn ; and when we remember that in the old days,
penned by bgfQj-g fields werc fenced in, all kinds of animals must have
the advance
of the been free to roam over them, we need not wonder that the
the^iasV"^° corn -spirit should have been identified even with large
patch of animals like the horse and cow, which nowadays could not,
com which c^cept by a rare accident, be found straying in an English
is usually com-ficld. This explanation applies with peculiar force to
theTast t^6 very common case in which the animal embodiment of
refuge of the corn-spirit is believed to lurk in the last standing corn.
the corn- -^ i r -i i • i i i
spirit. ^ox at harvest a number of wild animals, such as hares,
rabbits, and partridges, are commonly driven by the progress
of the reaping into the last patch of standing corn, and
make their escape from it as it is being cut down. So
^ W. Mannhardt, Die Koynddmonen (Berlin, 1868), p. I.
VIII ANIMAL EMBODIMENTS OF THE CORN-SPIRIT 305
regularly does this happen that reapers and others often
stand round the last patch of corn armed with sticks or
guns, with which they kill the animals as they dart out of
their last refuge among the stalks. Now, primitive man, to
whom magical changes of shape seem perfectly credible,
finds it most natural that the spirit of the corn, driven from
his home in the ripe grain, should make his escape in the
form of the animal which is seen to rush out of the last
patch of corn as it falls under the scythe of the reaper.
Thus the identification of the corn -spirit with an animal
is analogous to the identification of him with a passing
stranger. As the sudden appearance of a stranger near the
harvest- field or threshing-floor is, to the primitive mind,
enough to identify him as the spirit of the corn escaping
from the cut or threshed corn, so the sudden appearance of
an animal issuing from the cut corn is enough to identify
it with the corn-spirit escaping from his ruined home. The
two identifications are so analogous that they can hardly be
dissociated in any attempt to explain them. Those who
look to some other principle than the one here suggested
for the explanation of the latter identification are bound
to shew that their theory covers the former identification
also.
PT. v. VOL. I
NOTE
THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS
The constellation of the Pleiades plays an important part in the import-
calendar of primitive peoples, both in the northern and in the ^nce of the
southern hemisphere ; indeed for reasons which at first sight are ^'\f^ '"
not obvious savages appear to have paid more attention to this calendars,
constellation than to any other group of stars in the sky, and in
particular they have commonly timed the various operations of the
agricultural year by observation of its heliacal rising or setting.
Some evidence on the subject was adduced by the late Dr, Richard
Andree,^ but much more exists, and it may be worth while to put
certain of the facts together.
In the first place it deserves to be noticed that great attention Attention
has been paid to the Pleiades by savages in the southern hemisphere P^'f '° ^^^
who do not till the ground, and who therefore lack that incentive to ^ ^'j^^
observe the stars which is possessed by peoples in the agricultural Australian
stage of society ; for we can scarcely doubt that in early ages the aborigines,
practical need of ascertaining the proper seasons for sowing and
planting has done more than mere speculative curiosity to foster
a knowledge of astronomy by compelling savages to scrutinise the
great celestial clock for indications of the time of year. Now
amongst the rudest of savages known to us are the Australian
aborigines, none of whom in their native state ever practised
agriculture. Yet we are told that "they do, according to their
manner, worship the hosts of heaven, and believe particular con-
stellations rule natural causes. For such they have names, and
sing and dance to gain the favour of the Pleiades (Mormode/h'ck),
the constellation worshipped by one body as the giver of rain ; but
if it should be deferred, instead of blessings curses are apt to be
bestowed upon it." ^ According to a writer, whose evidence on
1 R. Andrea, " Die Pleiaden im W. Ridley, " Report on Australian
Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung zum Languages and Traditions," yipz^rwa/ i?/"
Jahresbeginn und Landbau," Globus, the Anthropological Institute, \i. {\%']'3,')
Ixiv. (1893) pp. 362-366. p. 279; id., Kamilaroi {Sydney, 1875),
2 Mr. McKellar, quoted by the Rev. p. 138. Mr. McKellar's evidence was
307
3o8 THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS note
other matters of Australian beliefs is open to grave doubt, some of
the aborigines of New South Wales denied that the sun is the
source of heat, because he shines also in winter when the weather is
cold ; the real cause of w^arm weather they held to be the Pleiades,
because as the summer heat increases, that constellation rises higher
and higher in the sky, reaching its greatest elevation in the height
of summer, and gradually sinking again in autumn as the days grow
cooler, till in winter it is either barely visible or lost to view
altogether.^ Another writer, who was well acquainted with the
natives of Victoria in the early days of the colony and whose testi-
mony can be relied upon, tells us that an old chief of the Spring
Creek tribe " taught the young people the names of the favourite
planets and constellations, as indications of the seasons. For
example, when Canopus is a very little above the horizon in the
east at daybreak, the season for emu eggs has come; when the
Pleiades are visible in the east an hour before sunrise, the time
for visiting friends and neighbouring tribes is at hand." ^
Attention Again, the Abipones of Paraguay, who neither sowed nor reaped,^
paid to the nevertheless regarded the Pleiades as an image of their ancestor.
the'indLns ^^ ^^^^ constellation is invisible in the sky of South America
of Para- for several months every year, the Abipones believed that their
guay and ancestor was then sick, and they were dreadfully afraid that he
would die. But when the constellation reappeared in the month
of May, they saluted the return of their ancestor with joyous shouts
and the glad music of flutes and horns, and they congratulated
him on his recovery from sickness. Next day they all went out to
collect wild honey, from which they brewed a favourite beverage.
Then at sunset they feasted and kept up the revelry all night by the
given before a Select Committee of the of Central Australia (London, 1904),
Legislative Council of Victoria in 1858 ; p. 628 ; A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of
from which we may perhaps infer that South-East Australia (London, 1904),
his statement refers especially to the pp. 429 sq. Some tribes of Victoria
tribes of Victoria or at all events of believed that the Pleiades were origin-
south-eastern Australia. It seems to ally a queen and six of her attendants,
be a common belief among the abo- but that the Crow (Waa) fell in love
rigines of central and south-eastern v.ith the queen and ran away with her,
Australia that the Pleiades are women and that since then the Pleiades have
who once lived on earth but afterwards been only six in number. See James
went up into the sky. See W. E. Stan- Dawson, Australian Aborigines (Mel-
bridge, iu Transactions of the Ethno- bourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881),
logical Society of London, 'H.?). I. [1^61) p. 1 00.
p. 302; P. Beveridge, "Of the Abo- ' J. Manning, "Notes on the
rigines inhabiting the great Lacustrine Aborigines of New 'HoWa.nd" Journal
and Riverine Depression of the Lower and Proceedings of the Royal Society of
yivixxa.y,'' eic, Joicrnal and Proceedings Neiv South JFfl/t'j', xvi. (Sydney, 1S83)
of the Royal Society of N'ew South Wales, p. 168.
xvii. (Sydney, 1884) p. 61 ; Baldwin ^ James Dawson, Australian. Abo-
Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native rigines, p. 75.
Tribes of Central Australia (London, ^ M. Dobrizhoffer, Historia de Abi-
1899), p. 566; id.. Northern Tribes po/iibus (Vienna., 1784), ii. 1 1 8.
NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS 309
light of torches, while a sorceress, who presided at the festivity,
shook her rattle and danced. But the proceedings were perfectly
decorous ; the sexes did not mix with each other. ^ The Mocobis of
Paraguay also looked upon the Pleiades as their father and creator.^
The Guaycurus of the Gran Chaco used to rejoice greatly at the
reappearance of the Pleiades. On this occasion they held a festival
at which men and women, boys and girls all beat each other soundly,
believing that this brought them health, abundance, and victory over
their enemies.^ Amongst the Lengua Indians of Paraguay at the
present day the rising of the Pleiades is connected with the beginning
of spring, and feasts are held at this time, generally of a markedly
immoral character."* The Guaranis of Paraguay knew the time of
sowing by observation of the Pleiades ; ^ they are said to have
revered the constellation and to have dated the beginning-, of- their
year from the rising of the constellation in May.^ The Tapuiyas,
formerly a numerous and warlike tribe of Brazil, hailed the rising
of the Pleiades with great respect, and worshipped the constel-
lation with songs and dances. ''^ The Indians of north-western
Brazil, an agricultural people who subsist mainly by the culti-
vation of manioc, determine the time for their various field
labours by the position of certain constellations, especially the
Pleiades ; when that constellation has sunk beneath the horizon,
the regular, heavy rains set in.^ The Omagua Indians of Brazil
ascribe to the Pleiades a special influence on human destiny.^
A Brazilian name for the Pleiades is Cyiuce, that is, " Mother
of those who are thirsty." The constellation, we are told, " is
known to the Indians of the whole of Brasil and appears to
be even worshipped by some tribes in Matto Grosso. In the
valley of the Amazon a number of popular sayings are current
about it. Thus they say that in the first days of its appearance
in the firmament, while it is still low, the birds and especially the
fowls sleep on the lower branches or perches, and that just as it
rises so do they ; that it brings much cold and rain ; that when the
constellation vanishes, the serpents lose their venom ; that the reeds
1 M. Dobrizhoffer, op. cit. ii. 77 sq., ^ Pedro de Angelis, op. cit. iv. 14.
IOI-105. ^ Th. Waitz, Anthropologic dcr
2 Pedro de Angelis, Coleccion de 7Va/?<rt'<)fer, iii. (Leipsic, 1S62) p. 418,
Obras y Dociimentos relativos a la referring to Marcgrav de Liebstadt,
Historia antigiia y moderna de las Hist, rerum naturalitwi Brasil. (Am-
Provincias del Rio de la Plata (Buenos sterdam, 1648), viii. 5 and 12.
Ayres, 1836-1837), iv. 15. ^ M. Dobrizhoffer, Historia de Abi-
3 P. Lozano, Description choro- ponibtts, ii. 104.
graphico del terreno, rios, arboles, y ^ Th. Koch-Griinberg, Zii<ei Jahre
animales del Gran Chaco (Cordova, nnter den Indianern (Berlin, 1909-
1733). P- 67. 1910), ii. 203.
* W. Barbrooke Grubb, An Un- ^ C. F. Phil. v. Martius, Ziir Ethio-
inown People in an Unknotun Land gj-aphie Avierika^s, ztimal Brasilietis
(London, 191 1), p. 139. (Leipsic, 1867), p. 441.
3IO THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS note
used in making arrows must be cut before the appearance of the
Pleiades, else they will be worm-eaten. According to the legend
the Pleiades disappear in May and reappear in June. Their
reappearance coincides with the renewal of vegetation and of animal
life. Hence the legend relates that everything which appears before
the constellation is renewed, that is, the appearance of the Pleiades,
marks the beginning of spring." ^ The Indians of the Orinoco
called the Pleiades Ucasu or Cacasau, according to their dialect,
and they dated the beginning of their year from the time when these
stars are visible in the east after sunset.^
Attention By the Indians of Peru " the Pleiades were called Collca
paid to the /^j-jg maize - heap) : in this constellation the Peruvians both of
Pleiades by
the Indians ^^ sierra and the coast beheld the prototype of their cherished
of Peru and stores of corn. It made their maize to grow, and was worshipped
Mexico. accordingly." ^ When the Pleiades appeared above the horizon on or
about Corpus Christi Day, these Indians celebrated their chief festival
of the year and adored the constellation " in order that the maize
might not dry up." * Adjoining the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco
there was a cloister with halls opening off it. One of these halls
was dedicated to the Moon, and another to the planet Venus, the
Pleiades, and all the other stars. The Incas venerated the Pleiades
because of their curious position and the symmetry of their shape.^
The tribes of Vera Cruz, on the coast of Mexico, dated the beginning
of their year from the heliacal setting of the Pleiades, which in the
latitude of Vera Cruz (19° N.) in the year 15 19 fell on the first of
May of the Gregorian calendar.'' The Aztecs appear to have attached
great importance to the Pleiades, for they timed the most solemn
and impressive of all their religious ceremonies so as to coincide with
the moment when that constellation was in the middle of the sky at
midnight. The ceremony consisted in kindling a sacred new fire
on the breast of a human victim on the last night of a great period
of fifty-two years. They expected that at the close of one of these
periods the stars would cease to revolve and the world itself would
come to an end. Hence, when the critical moment approached,
' Carl Teschauer, S.J., " Mythen ^ Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part
und alte Volkssagen aus Brasilien," oftheRoyalCommentai-iesoftheYncas,
Anthropos, i. (1906) p. 736. translated by (Sir) Clements R. Mark-
^ J. Gumilla, Histoire Naturelle et ham (London, 1869-1S71, Hakluyt
Civile et Geographiqiie de rOrenogite Society), i. 275. Compare J. de
(Avignon, 1758), iii. 254^^. Acosta, Natural and Moral History of
3 E. J. Payne, History of the Neio the Indies (London, 1880, Hakluyt
World called America, i. (Oxford, Society), ii. 304.
1892) p. 492.
* P. J- de Arriaga, Extirpacion de ^'E.Se\QX,Alt-AfexikanischeSttidien,
la Idolatria del Firzi (Lima, 1621), ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 166 stj., referring
pp. II, 2^ sq. According to Arriaga, to Petrus Martyr, De miper sub D.
the Peruvian name for the Pleiades is Carolo repertis inst/lis (Ba.s\lea.e, 1521),
Oncoy. p. 15.
NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS 311
the priests watched from the top of a mountain the movement of
the stars, and especially of the Pleiades, with the utmost anxiety.
When that constellation was seen to cross the meridian, great was the
joy ; for they knew that the world was respited for another fifty-two
years. Immediately the bravest and handsomest of the captives
was thrown down on his back ; a board of dry wood was placed on
his breast, and one of the priests made fire by twirling a stick
between his hands on the board. As soon as the flame burst
forth, the breast of the victim was cut open, his heart was torn out,
and together with the rest of his body was thrown into the fire.
Runners carried the new fire at full speed to all parts of the king-
dom to rekindle the cold hearths ; for every fire throughout the
country had been extinguished as a preparation for this solemn rite.^
The Blackfeet Indians of North America "know and observe Attention
the Pleiades, and regulate their most important feast by those stars. P^'^ 'o '^e
About the first and the last days of the occultation of the Pleiades Se^North^
there is a sacred feast among the Blackfeet. The mode of observ- American
ance is national, the whole of the tribe turning out for the celebra- Indians.
tion of its rites, which include two sacred vigils, the solemn blessing
and planting of the seed. It is the opening of the agricultural
season. ... In all highly religious feasts the calumet, or pipe, is
always presented towards the Pleiades, with invocation for hfe-
giving goods. The women swear by the Pleiades as the men do by
the sun or the morning star." At the general meeting of the nation
there is a dance of warriors, which is supposed to represent the
dance of the seven young men who are identified with the Pleiades.
For the Indians say that the seven stars of the constellation were
seven brothers, who guarded by night the field of sacred seed and
danced round it to keep themselves awake during the long hours of
darkness.'^ According to another legend told by the Blackfeet, the
Pleiades are six children, who were so ashamed because they had
no little yellow hides of buffalo calves that they wandered away on
the plains and were at last taken up into the sky. " They are not
seen during the moon, when the buffalo calves are yellow (spring,
the time of their shame), but, every year, when the calves turn
brown (autumn), the lost children can be seen in the sky every
night." ^ This version of the myth, it will be observed, recognises
1 B. de Sahagun, Histoire Gi'iiirale H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of
des ckoses de la Nouvelle Espagne {Va.x\s, the Pacific States of North America
1880), pp. 288 sq., 489 sqq.; A. de (London, 1875-1876), iii. 393-395.
Herrera, General History of the Vast ^ Jean I'Heureux, " Ethnological
Continent and Islands of America, Notes on the Astronomical Customs
translated by Capt. J. Stevens (London, and Religious Ideas of the Chokitapia
1725-1726), iii. 222 ; F. S. Clavigero, or Blackfeet l\\d\a.ns" Journal of the
History of Mexico, translated by C. Anthivpological Institute, xv. (1886)
CuUen (London, 1807), i. 315 i'$'.; J. G. pp. 301-303.
Miiller, Geschichte der ainerikanischen ^ Walter McClintock, Zy/t? C/r/A'fjr//^
Urreligionen (Bale, 1S67), pp. 519 ■y^'.; 7>a// (London, 1910), p. 490.
312 THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS note
only six stars in the constellation, and many savages apparently see
no more, which speaks ill for the keenness of their vision ; since
among ourselves persons endowed with unusually good sight are
able, I understand, to discern seven. Among the Pueblo Indians
of Tusayan, an ancient province of Arizona, the culmination of the
Pleiades is often used to determine the proper time for beginning
a sacred nocturnal rite, especially an invocation addressed to the six
deities who are believed to rule the six quarters of the world. The
writer who records this fact adds : " I cannot explain its signifi-
cance, and why of all stellar objects this minute cluster of stars of a
low magnitude is more important than other stellar groups is not
clear to me." ^ If the Pueblo Indians see only six stars in the
cluster, as to which I cannot speak, it might seem to them a reason
for assigning one of the stars to each of the six quarters, namely,
north, south, east, west, above, and below.
Attention The Society Islanders in the South Pacific divided the year into
p^-^ H° *h*^ '•^^^ seasons, which they determined by observation of the Pleiades.
the Poly- " The first they called Matariii nia, Pleiades above. It commenced
nesians. when, in the evening, these stars appeared on or near the horizon ;
and the half year, during which, immediately after sunset, they were
seen above the horizon, was called Matarii i nia. The other season
commenced when, at sunset, the stars were invisible, and continued
until at that hour they appeared again above the horizon. This
season was called Matarii i raro, Pleiades below." ^ In the Hervey
Islands of the South Pacific it is said that the constellation was
originally a single star, which was shattered into six fragments by
the god Tane. " This cluster of little stars is appropriately named
Mata-riki or little-eyes, on account of their brightness. It is also
designated Tau-ono, or the-six, on account of the apparent number
of the fragments ; the presence of the seventh star not having been
detected by the unassisted native eye." ^ Among these islanders the
arrival of the new year was indicated by the appearance of the constel-
lation on the eastern horizon just after sunset, that is, about the middle
of December. " Hence the idolatrous worship paid to this beautiful
cluster of stars in many of the South Sea Islands. The Pleiades
were worshipped at Danger Island, and at the Penrhyns, down to
the introduction of Christianity in 1857. In many islands extrava-
gant joy is still manifested at the rising of this constellation out of
the ocean." * For example, in Manahiki or Humphrey's Island,
South Pacific, " when the constellation Pleiades was seen there was
unusual joy all over the month, and expressed by singing, dancing,
1 J. Walter Fewkes, "The Tusayan 1832-1836), i. 87.
New Fire Ceremony," Proceedings of ^ Rev. W. W. Gill, Myths and
the Boston Society of Natural Histoiy, Songs from the South Pacific (London,
xxvi. (1895) P- 453- 1876), p. 43-
2 Rev. W. Ellis, Polynesian Re- * Rev. W. W. Gill, op. cit. p. 317,
seatrhes. Second Edition (London, compare p. 44.
NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS 313
and blowing-shell trumpets." ^ So the Maoris of New Zealand,
another Polynesian people of the South Pacific, divided the year
into moons and determined the first moon by the rising of the
Pleiades, which they called Matariki} Indeed throughout Poly-
nesia the rising of the Pleiades (variously known as Matariki, Mata-
hki, Matalii, Makalii, etc.) seems to have marked the beginning of
the year.^
Among some of the Melanesians also the Pleiades occupy an Attention
important position in the calendar. "The Banks' islanders and paid to the
Northern New Hebrides people content themselves with distinguish- the'Mda-^
ing the Pleiades, by which the approach of yam harvest is marked."'^ nesians.
" Amongst the constellations, the Pleiades and Orion's belt seem to
be those which are most familiar to the natives of Bougainville
Straits. The former, which they speak of as possessing six stars,
they name Vuhu ; the latter Matatala. They have also names for
a few other stars. As in the case of many other savage races, the
Pleiades is a constellation of great significance with the inhabitants
of these straits. The Treasury Islanders hold a great feast towards
the end of October, to celebrate, as far as I could learn, the
approaching appearance of the constellation above the eastern
horizon soon after sunset. Probably, as in many of the Pacific
Islands, this event marks the beginning of their year. I learned
from Mr. Stephens that, in Ugi, where of all the constellations the
Pleiades alone receives a name, the natives are guided by it in
selecting the times for planting and taking up the yams." ^
The natives of the Torres Straits islands observe the appearance Attention
of the Pleiades {Usiam) on the horizon at sunset; and when they P\"^ ^°/'?'^
see it, they say that the new yam time has come.*^ The Kai and ^•^^ natives
the Bukaua, two agricultural tribes of German New Guinea, also of New
determine the season of their labour in the fields by observation of Guinea and
the Pleiades : the Kai say that the time for such labours is when ^^hi-
the Pleiades are visible above the horizon at night.''' In some peiago.
districts of northern Celebes the rice-fields are similarly prepared for
cultivation when the Pleiades are seen at a certain height above the
1 G. Turner, 6'awi?a( London, 1 8S4), In the island of Florida the Pleiades
p. 279. a.re C3.\\e.di togo ni saiitu, " the company
2 E. Shortland, Traditions and of maidens " {op. cit. p. 349).
Superstitions of the New Zealanders, 6 H. B. Guppy, The Solomon Islands
Second Edition (London, 1856), p. ^„^ ^;^^/^, Natives (London, 1887), p.
219- ^ 56.
3 The United States Exploring Ex- „. „^^.. _. j r
,.,. r-^i ^7 J m -7 1 6 A. C. Haddon, "Legends from
peditton, Ethnography and Philology, zr A 7 • /tC^^\ „
\ Tj \- Tj 7 /^uM J I V,- tC./\ Torres Straits," Folk-lore, 1. (1890) p.
by Horatio Hale (Philadelphia, 1846 , . ' .1 \. n
•' T- T- nr ■ r, 1 ■ ^^^- We may coniecture that the
p. 170; ^.Tx<t^&2x, Maori-Polynesian ,/-' .-',,■' ,, ,• r
'I ' ' . r? .,• /,T7 11- .. " new yam time means the time lor
Comparative Dictionary (Wellington, . ■'
-NT '^ o X a planting yams.
N.Z., 1891), p. 226. ^ ^ ■>
* Rev. R. H. Codrington, The "^ YL.l<ie\xha.ViSs, Deutsch A'eu- Guinea
Melanesians (Oxford, 1 891), p. 348. (Berlin, 1911), pp. 159, 43' ^^-
314
THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS note
horizon.^ As to the Dyaks of Sarawak we read that " the Pleiades
themselves tell them when to farm ; and according to their position
in the heavens, morning and evening, do they cut down the forest,
burn, plant, and reap. The Malays are obliged to follow their
example, or their lunar year would soon render their farming opera-
tions unprofitable." ^ When the season for clearing fresh land in
the forest approaches, a wise man is appointed to go out before
dawn and watch for the Pleiades. As soon as the constellation is
seen to rise while it is yet dark, they know that the time has come
to begin. But not until the Pleiades are at the zenith before dawn
do the Dyaks think it desirable to burn the fallen timber and to sow
the rice.^ However, the Kenyahs and Kayans, two other tribes of
Sarawak, determine the agricultural seasons by observation of the
sun rather than of the stars ; and for this purpose they have devised
certain simple but ingenious mechanisms. The Kenyahs measure
the length of the shadow cast by an upright pole at noon ; and the
Kayans let in a beam of light through a hole in the roof and
measure the distance from the point immediately below the hole to
the place where the light reaches the floor.* But the Kayans of the
Mahakam river, in Dutch Borneo, determine the time for sowing by
observing when the sun sets in a line with two upright stones.^ In
Bali, an island to the east of Java, the appearance of the Pleiades at
sunset in March marks the end of the year.^ The Pleiades and
1 A. F. van Spreeuwenberg, " Een
blik op de Minahassa," Tijdschrift
voor Neerlaiids Indie, Vierde Deel
(Batavia, 1845), p. 316; J. G. F.
Riedel, " De landschappen Holontalo,
Limoeto, Bone, Boalemo, at Katting-
gola, of Andagile," Tijdschrift voor
Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenktinde,
xix. (1869) p. 140; id., in Zeitschrift
fiir Ethnologie, iii. (187 1) p. 404.
2 Spenser St. John, Life in the
Forests of the Far East, Second
Edition (London, 1863), i. 214.
Compare H. Low, Sarawak (London,
1848), p. 251.
3 Dr. Charles Hose, " Various
Modes of computing the Time for
Planting among the Races of Borneo,"
Journal of the Straits Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society, No. 42 (Singa-
pore, 1905), pp. I sq. Compare
Charles Brooke, Ten Years in Sara-
wak (London, 1866), i. 59; Rev.
J. Perham, "Sea Dyak Religion,"
Journal of the Straits Branch of tlie
Royal Asiatic Society, No. 10 (Singa-
pore, 1883), p. 229.
* Dr. Charles Hose, op. cit. p. 4.
Compare id. , ' ' The Natives of Bor-
neo," Journal of tiie Antliropolcgical
Institute, xxiii. (1894) pp. 168 sq.,
where the writer tells us that the
Kayans and many other races in Borneo
sow the rice when the Pleiades appear
just above the horizon at daybreak,
though the Kayans more usually deter-
mine the time for sowing by observa-
tion of the sun. As to the Kayan
mode of determining the time for sow-
ing by the length of shadow cast by an
upright pole, see also W. Kiikenthal,
Forschungsreise in den Molukken und
in Borneo (Frankfort, 1896), pp. 292
sq. Some Dyaks employ a species of
sun-dial for dating the twelve months
of the year. See H. E. D. Engel-
haard, " Aanteekeningen betreffende
de Kindjin Dajaks in het Landschap
Baloengan," Tijdschrift voor Indische
Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xxxix.
(1S97) pp. 484-486.
^ A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer diirch
Borneo (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 160.
^ F. K. Ginzel, Handbuch der
maihematischen undtechnisclien Chrono-
logie, i. (Leipsic, 1906) p. 424.
NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS 315
Orion are the only constellations which the people of Bali observe
for the purpose of correcting their lunar calendar by intercala-
tion. Yor example, they bring the lunar year into harmony
with the solar by prolonging the month Asada until the Pleiades
are visible at sunset.^ The natives of Nias, an island to the
south of Sumatra, pay little heed to the stars, but they have
names for the Morning Star and for the Pleiades ; and when
the Pleiades appear in the sky, the people assemble to till their
fields, for they think that to do so before the rising of the con-
stellation would be useless." In some districts of Sumatra " much
confusion in regard to the period of sowing is said to have arisen
from a very extraordinary cause. Anciently, say the natives, it was
regulated by the stars, and particularly by the appearance (heliacal
rising) of the bintang baniak or Pleiades ; but after the introduction
of the Mahometan religion, they were induced to follow the returns
of the pudsa or great annual fast, and forgot their old rules. The
consequence of this was obvious ; for the lunar year of the hejrah
being eleven days short of the sidereal or solar year, the order of the
seasons was soon inverted ; and it is only astonishing that its inapt-
ness to the purposes of agriculture should not have been immedi-
ately discovered."^ The Battas or Bataks of central Sumatra date
the various operations of the agricultural year by the positions of
Orion and the Pleiades. When the Pleiades rise before the sun at
the beginning of July, the Achinese of northern Sumatra know that
the time has come to sow the rice.*
Scattered and fragmentary as these notices are, they suffice to Attention
shew that the Pleiades have received much attention from savages Pf ^ ^° ^^
. . . ^ , 1 1 r T-» -1 • 1 Pleiades by
in the tropical regions of the world from Brasil m the east to t^e natives
Sumatra in the west. Far to the north of the tropics the rude of Africa.
Kamchatkans are said to know only three constellations, the Great
Bear, the Pleiades, and three stars in Orion. ^ When we pass to
Africa we again find the Pleiades employed by tribes in various
parts of the continent to mark the seasons of the agricultural year.
We have seen that the Caffres of South Africa date their new year
from the rising of the Pleiades just before sunrise and fix the time
for sowing by observation of that constellation.^ " They calculate
^ R. Friederich, " Voorloopig Ver- ^ W. Marsden, History of Sumatra,
slag van hat eiland Bali," Verha7ide- Third Edition (London, 181 1), p.
lingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap 7 1 .
vatt Knnsten en Wettenschappen, xxiii. * F. K. Ginzel, Handbuch der
(1849) p. 49. mathematiscken undtechnischen Chjvno-
2 J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. logie, i. (Leipsic, 1906) p. 428.
von Rosenberg, " Verslag omtient het ^ S. Krascheninnikow, Beschreib-
eiland Nias en deszelfs Bewoners," iing des Landes Kamtschatka (Lemgo,
Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch 1766), p. 217. The three stars are
Genootschap van Kunsten en Weten- probably the Belt.
schappen, xxx. (Batavia, iS63)p. 119. ^ See above, vol. i. p. 1 16.
3i6 777^ PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS note
only twelve lunar months for the year, for which they have descrip-
tive names, and this results in frequent confusion and difference of
opinion as to which month it really is. The confusion is always
rectified by the first appearance of Pleiades just before sunrise, and
a fresh start is made and things go on smoothly till once more the
moons get out of place, and reference has again to be made to the
stars." ^ According to another authority on the Bantu tribes of
South Africa, " the rising of the Pleiades shortly after sunset was
regarded as indicating the planting season. To this constella-
tion, as well as to several of the prominent stars and planets,
they gave expressive names. They formed no theories concerning
the nature of the heavenly bodies and their motions, and were not
given to thinking of such things." ^ The Amazulu call the Pleiades
Isilimela, which means "The digging-for (stars)," because when the
Pleiades appear the people begin to dig. They say that " Isilimela
(the Pleiades) dies, and is not seen. It is not seen in winter ; and
at last, when the winter is coming to an end, it begins to appear —
one of its stars first, and then three, until going on increasing it
becomes a cluster of stars, and is perfectly clear when the sun is
about to rise. And we say Isilimela is renewed, and the year
is renewed, and so we begin to dig."^ The Bechuanas "are
directed by the position of certain stars in the heavens, that the
time has arrived, in the revolving year, when particular roots can be
dug up for use, or when they may commence their labours of the
field. This is their likhakologo (turnings or revolvings), or what we
should call the spring time of the year. The Pleiades they call
selemela, which may be translated 'cultivator,' or the precursor of
agriculture, from lemela, the relative verb to cultivate for ; and se,
a pronominal prefix, distinguishing them as the actors. Thus,
when this constellation assumes a certain position in the heavens,
it is the signal to commence cultivating their fields and gardens." '^
Among some of these South African tribes the period of seclu-
sion observed by lads after circumcision comes to an end with
the appearance of the Pleiades, and accordingly the youths are
said to long as ardently for the rising of the constellation as
Mohammedans for the rising of the moon which will put an end
to the fast of Ramadan.^ The Hottentots date the seasons of the
^ Rev. J. Macdonald, Lig-ht in (London, 1827), ii. 359.
Africa, Second Edition (London, ^ j^gy^ h. Callaway, 77^1? Religiotis
1890), pp. 194 sq. Compare J. System of the Amazulu, Part iii.
Sechefo, "The Twelve Lunar Months (London, etc., 1870), p. 397.
among the Basuto," Anthropos, iv. '^ K. ls/lo^a.i. Missionary Labotirs and
(1909) p. 931. Scenes in Southern Africa (London,
'^ G. McCall Theal, Records of 1842), pp. 337 sq.
South-Eastern Africa, vii. (1901) p. *> Stephen Kay, Travels and Re-
418. Compare G. Thompson, Travels searches in Caffraria (London, 1833),
and Adventures in Southern Africa p. 273.
NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS 317
year by the rising and setting of the Pleiades.^ An early Moravian
missionary settled among the Hottentots, reports that "at the return of
the Pleiades these natives celebrate an anniversary ; as soon as these
stars appear above the eastern horizon mothers will lift their little ones
on their arms, and running up to elevated spots, will show to them
those friendly stars, and teach them to stretch their little hands towards
them. The people of a kraal will assemble to dance and to sing
according to the old custom of their ancestors. The chorus always
sings : ' O Tiqua, our Father above our heads, give rain to us, that
the fruits (bulbs, etc.), uie^itjes, may ripen, and that we may have
plenty of food, send us a good year.' " ^ With some tribes of British
Central Africa the rising of the Pleiades early in the evening is the
signal for the hoeing to begin.^ To the Masai of East Africa the
appearance of the Pleiades in the west is the sign of the beginning
of the rainy season, which takes its name from the constellation.*
In Masailand the Pleiades are above the horizon from September
till about the seventeenth of May ; and the people, as they express
it themselves, " know whether it will rain or not according to the
appearance or non-appearance of the six stars, called The Pleiades,
which follow after one another like cattle. When the month which
the Masai call ' Of the Pleiades ' ^ arrives, and the Pleiades are no
longer visible, they know that the rains are over. For the Pleiades
set in that month and are not seen again until the season of
showers has come to an end : "^ it is then that they reappear." ^
The only other groups of stars for which the Masai appear to
have names are Orion's sword and Orion's belt.^ The Nandi
of British East Africa have a special name i^Koremerik) for the
Pleiades, " and it is by the appearance or non-appearance of these
stars that the Nandi know whether they may expect a good or a
bad harvest." ^ The Kikuyu of the same region say that " the
Pleiades is the mark in the heavens to show the people when to
plant their crops ; they plant when this constellation is in a certain
position early in the night." ^'^ In Sierra Leone " the proper time
1 Gustav Fritsch, Die Eingeboreneii ^ A. C. HoUis, The Masai (Oxford,
Siid-Afrika's (Breslau, 1872). p. 340. 1905), p. 275, compare p. 333. The
2 Theophilus Hiihn, Tsmii-Goam, "season of showers" seems to be a
the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi name for the dry season (June, July,
(London, l88i), p. 43, quoting the August), when rain falls only occasion-
Moravian missionary George Schmidt, ally ; it is thus distinguished from the
who was sent out to the Cape of Good rainy season of winter, which begins
Hope in 1737. after the reappearance of the Pleiades
3 H. S. Stannus, " Notes on some in September.
Tribes of British Central Africa," ^ A. C. Hollis, The Masai, pp.
Journal of the R. Anthropological In- 275 sq.
stitute, xl. (1910) p. 2S9. " A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Q-doxA,
* M. Merker, Die Masai (Berlin, 1909), p. 100.
1894), pp. 15s, 198. IOC. W. Hobley, "Further Re-
■'■ May. ^ June- August. searches into Kikuyu and Kamba
3i8 THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS note
Attention
paid to the
Pleiades by
the Greeks
and
Romans.
The
widespread
association
of the
Pleiades
with agri-
culture
seems to be
based on
the coin-
cidence of
their rising
or setting
with the
commence-
ment of
the rainy
season.
for preparing the plantations is shewn by the particular situation in
which the Pleiades, called by the BuUoms a-warrang, the only stars
which they observe or distinguish by peculiar names, are to be seen
at sunset." ^ We have seen that ancient Greek farmers reaped their
corn when the Pleiades rose at sunrise in May, and that they ploughed
their fields when the constellation set at sunrise in November.^ The
interval between the two dates is about six months. Both the Greeks
and the Romans dated the beginning of summer from the heliacal
rising of the Pleiades and the beginning of winter from their heliacal
setting.^ Pliny regarded the autumnal setting of the Pleiades as the
proper season for sowing the corn, particularly the wheat and the
barley, and he tells us that in Greece and Asia all the crops were
sown at the setting of that constellation.*
So widespread over the world has been and is the association of
the Pleiades with agriculture, especially with the sowing or planting
of the crops. The reason for the association seems to be the coincid-
ence of the rising or setting of the constellation with the commence-
ment of the rainy season ; since men must very soon have learned
that the best, if not the only, season to sow and plant is the time
of year when the newly-planted seeds or roots will be quickened by
abundant showers. The same association of the Pleiades with rain
seems sufficient to explain their importance even for savages who
do not till the ground ; for ignorant though such races are, they yet
can hardly fail to observe that wild fruits grow more plentifully, and
therefore that they themselves have more to eat after a heavy fall of
rain than after a long drought. In point of fact we saw that some
of the Australian aborigines, who are wholly ignorant of agriculture,
look on the Pleiades as the givers of rain, and curse the constellation
if its appearance is not followed by the expected showers."' On the
other side of the world, and at the opposite end of the scale of
culture, the civilised Greeks similarly supposed that the autumnal
setting of the Pleiades was the cause of ttie rains which followed it ;
and the astronomical writer Geminus thought it worth while to argue
against the supposition, pointing out that the vicissitudes of the
weather and of the seasons, though they may coincide with the
risings and settings of the constellations, are not produced by them,
Religious Beliefs and Customs,"
Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute., xli. (191 1) p. 442.
^ Thomas Win terbottom, An Account
of the Native Africans in the Neigh-
bourhood of Sierra Leone (London,
1803), p. 48.
2 Hesiod, Works and Days, 383
sq., 615 sqq. See above, pp. 45, 48.
^ Aratus, Phaeiiofnena, 264 - 267 ;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 123, 125, xviii.
280, " Vergiliae privatim attitient ad
fructus, ut quariim exortu aestas in-
ciptat, occasu hiems, sonenstri spatio
intra se messes vindemiasque et o>nnium
maturitatem conplexae" Compare L.
Ideler, Handbuch der inathe?natischen
und technischen Chronologie (Berlin,
1 825- 1 826), i. 241 sq. Pliny dated
the rising of the Pleiades on the loth
of May and their setting on the i ith of
November {^Nat. Hist. ii. 123, 125).
* Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii. 49 and 223.
^ See above, p. 307.
NOTE THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS
119
the stars being too distant from the earth to exercise any appreciable
influence on our atmosphere. Hence, he says, though the constella-
tions serve as the signals, they must not be regarded as the causes,
of atmospheric changes ; and he aptly illustrates the distinction by a
reference to beacon-fires, which are the signals, but not the causes,
of war.^
1 Geminus, Elemcnta Astronomiae,
xvii. lo sqq. If " the sweet influences
of the Pleiades " in the Authorised
Version of the English Bible were an
exact translation of the corresponding
Hebrew words in Job xxxviii. 31, we
should naturally explain the "sweet in-
fluences" by the belief that the autumnal
setting of the constellation is the cause
of rain. But the rendering of the
words is doubtful ; it is not even certain
that the constellation referred to is the
Pleiades. See the commentaries of
A. B. Davidson and Professor A. S.
Peak on the passage. The Revised
English Version translates the words
in question " the cluster of the
Pleiades." Compare H. Grimme, Das
israelitische Pfingstfest nnd der Pleja-
denktilt (Paderborn, 1907), pp. 61 sqq.
END OF VOL. I
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